A Nugget Of Advice
by DarkMasterStarr
Summary: A small bit of advice from Kakashi before the start of the semi-finals of the Chunin Exams leads Naruto down a path he would have never have followed in canon. A path that will lead Naruto to new places, and new discoveries about him and his family's past. Who knew? AU, Strong Naruto, Pairings to be announced.
1. I

_**A Word Before I Begin:**_ Hey. It's Dark. Or Ryu. Or whatever you call me.

A word before the story. Now, I have been gone for quite a while, and I know I have been slacking, but I just haven't felt a spark for writing in a while. Writing anything, really. I used to write my own stories, or even poetry, but I stopped. I been stumped on a chapter in Stop The Future for a while, and now that I lost my beta, it's been a slower process. Not to mention I finally got off my lazy butt and got me a job. Go me. However, this job is a late-night shift, and you can imagine how tired I am when I get home.

Fortunately, I now found a usage for my tablet, who once sat in my house, useless. Now, I found some software I can use to write while I'm at work. So, that can help with Stop The Future, and The Disciple.

_Stop The Future_: I just got to get over the hurdle that is the current chapter. Trying to write the fights down. Originally, I was going to make it all the way to the finals, but the chapter became too fucking much for me. So, I think the next chapter will just involve a few fights, and then the chapter after that will finish up the exams. I wanted to do a redo of the story but I don't think that's going to happen soon until I finish the shit I wanna finish with it.

_The Disciple_: Hurdle to jump over. I'm trying to make it as tasteful as possible, and not cheesy. Soon it will be updated. It won't be too long... Hopefully.

That's it for the update. For now, here's a new experiment fic I have been working on for a while.

Enjoy.

* * *

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 1_

"Sorry Naruto. I can't be much help to you this month. I need to concentrate solely on Sasuke."

"But Sensei-"

"No, Naruto. You shouldn't worry about anything other than mastering the basics. Work from there. Your chakra control still needs work, and your taijutsu, while _unique_, still has no substance. Until you improve in those areas, I think it's better that I focus all of my energy to Sasuke."

A scowl immediately came onto the face of 13-year-old Naruto Uzumaki. Rightfully so, in the blond boy's book.

He was getting nowhere with convincing his teacher, Kakashi Hatake, to help him get stronger over the Chūnin Exams. He knew his odds, and despise how silly he acted sometimes, he knew Neji's abilities were higher than his own. His taijutsu was impressive, he was agile and light-footed, and he fought smart – even if he was brutal at the same time. He hated to admit that such a bastard Neji had skills, skills that potentially could beat his, but it was true.

Naruto had people harp on his abilities for years. Being on Team Kakashi made the meager level of his abilities come to light even more, and he would be the first to admit that he wasn't as "godlike" as he thought he was in the Academy. He came off that high horse when he fought Zabuza and Haku. This recent fight with the snake man from the second part of the exams in the forest merely cemented that fact. He needed to improve greatly.

He couldn't get over the fact that he was completely beaten by Orochimaru, even under the terrible power of the Kyūbi; the power he once called upon to kick Haku's ass. It didn't even matter that he had the demon's strength. Without any sort of control over it, Orochimaru threw him away like a rag doll, messed with his chakra somehow with a technique, and marked Sasuke with a terrible seal on his neck. A thing that almost killed him. Orochimaru, for what it was worth, could have killed his entire team with just looking at them.

Naruto hated that feeling: the feeling of helplessness. He couldn't help but to blame himself for what happened back there. If he had stronger, if he applied himself more before in the Academy or in training, none of this would have happened.

After his encounter with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, he realized there were plenty of shinobi out there who could easily beat him. He had a lot to learn but that didn't seem too daunting of a task to him. He _wanted _to learn, he wanted to be stronger, not only because of his dream to one day serve as Hokage for his nation, but to protect the people that he cared about.

Which is why he was getting increasingly annoyed by Kakashi's refusal to train him. Sure, he asked Kakashi at times when he could admit was "inappropriate." Begging Kakashi for training every morning before the exams hadn't been fair, and he wasn't thinking about his teammates before. They needed training too; who was he to ask for individual training with a man he only knew for a few months now?

Now, however, it couldn't be any more appropriate. He was matched up with an opponent that, if he wasn't careful in his upcoming fight with him, could kick his ass. An opponent who was willing to kill one of his peers, and would have, if nobody hadn't stepped in time to stop it. This match also was something that could either inflate his ego, or be a massive blow to his pride. Naruto could not lose. Not when he promised the shy girl from before to avenge her. He needed to teach that son of bitch Neji that he couldn't hurt his cousin, even if he and her sides of the family had some type of beef with each other. Hinata was a nice girl. A little weird, sure, but she didn't deserve that beating that Neji gave her in the preliminaries.

So he needed help, and he was reaching out to the only man he knew that could help him. So, he had to act civil.

Naruto, instead of screaming – because it would only make Kakashi ignore him further – took a deep breath and calmed down before he thought of a good rebuttal for Kakashi. "Sensei, I'll admit it. I need help. With a lot of stuff. Yeah, my chakra control is lacking and my taijutsu isn't the greatest thing in the world, but I'm asking for your help. I'm not asking for you to completely indulge your time into me. I get it, Sasuke needs help, especially against his opponent, but did you stop to think about _me_ too?" Naruto put a hand on his chest, adding effect to his words. "I only have the **Kage Bunshin**. I don't have any other ninjutsu, other than the Academy techniques. That's it. I need help, dammit! I'm admitting my faults, so why can't you help me?!"

Unknown to Naruto, Kakashi understood his student's reasoning for asking him to train him for the month before the finals. He did. Naruto had been right to come out and say his faults to him, but the simple fact was to him that Naruto had said it too late. If Naruto admitted to his faults before, maybe he could have set some type of training with him. Maybe he could have made himself available to both Sasuke and Naruto but he couldn't. Not now. It wasn't entirely Naruto's fault, not by a long shot. However, Sasuke needed someone to help him out with the cursed seal Orochimaru placed on him. Other than Jiraiya, and the Hokage himself, Kakashi was the only available one to help combat against Orochimaru's juinjutsu. He was also the only one in this entire village that could help Sasuke develop his Sharingan along as well. No one else. He was the best teacher right now for Sasuke, and he knew it was unfair to Naruto.

It was unfair because Naruto knew nothing. Other than the **Kage Bunshin**, what else did he have? Unlike Sasuke, Naruto didn't have much access to ninjutsu because he had no inheritance at all. Nobody to leave him scrolls of ninjutsu he could work with. Kakashi was Naruto's really only help, but the gray-haired jōnin couldn't help him. Not now. He felt bad, he really did, but it had to be done. For the Gods' sake, Sasuke was fighting someone who would have no qualms on killing him and he needed to get Sasuke in shape. Sasuke would already be a task. Plus, he had to keep tabs on Sasuke's emotional health, and lately, it's been shot to shit with that cursed seal screwing with his mind. That promise of dark power was seductive, and every time Sasuke tapped into his chakra, Kakashi would have to worry about Orochimaru tempting him.

Naruto meant well, but he had been a problem. Naruto would take much longer to help, and a month wouldn't help him, not by a long shot. For now, all Naruto could do really, is to just work on his basics and hope for the best.

"Naruto, I'm sorry, I can't help you. I'm going to be blunt with you, Naruto. Your skills are subpar, and right now, you're at a point where you're grossly underpowered." Kakashi felt like an ass telling Naruto that, but to him, that was the truth.

Naruto's face immediately lit up with two things Kakashi predicted he would see: anger and disappointment. He was half-pissed at the older man, and half-disappointed with him. Under all of that, he saw a small spark of underlying _contempt _as well. It had been a brief second of seeing it, but Kakashi saw it. He wasn't blaming the boy at all. He would probably be the same if Minato-sensei had done the same to him when he was a genin. However, Kakashi wouldn't leave without telling him some advice. "But you don't need incredible skills to win in the exams."

"Wait, what?" Naruto's expression bloomed with confusion. "How can I win the Chūnin Exams without having ninjutsu?"

"What is the point of these exams, Naruto?" Kakashi immediately stopped Naruto from blurting out an answer. "Think about it for a second. Heck, you can take the rest of the month and think it over."

"What's the point of asking me that question if you want me to think about it all the way to next month? How can I win the exams thinking about a question?" Naruto's brow furrowed in annoyance, trying his best to find the truth. After a minute thinking about an answer to Kakashi's riddle, he threw his hands in frustration. "Argh! Forget it, I'm done asking you anything. You're not going to help, so I guess I'll figure it out on myself."

"You will. You're not as stupid as people say you are, Naruto. If you think it over a little instead of jumping to conclusions, you'll get it." Kakashi put an encouraging smile on his face, under the mask. "Now, I actually do have someone that can help you for the remainder of the month. Someone that can help you go over the basics."

Naruto still didn't see how learning how to do the basics _better_ was going to help him beat Neji, an advanced genin with the ability to beat anyone in the tournament. Nonetheless, the blond nodded solemnly. Further arguing with the man would do more damage than it could help. "Alright then."

"No more arguing or asking me who you'll be getting?" The gray-haired ninja asked, unable to hid the confusion in his voice.

Naruto did an uncharacteristically deep sigh. Then, the boy shrugged and sent his teacher a flat look. "I don't really care anymore."

Kakashi sent Naruto a worried look. Obviously, the blond was hurt, but he wasn't showing it. _'He's suppressing his feelings. I know I pissed him off. Big time.' _He knew he would have to make it up to Naruto, so he smiled again to the boy. "I promise to show you a few techniques that can help you later on in the future. That's why I need you to go over the basics, Naruto. They help build up a good foundation."

Naruto nodded again, though it was without any real vigor. "Yes, Sensei."

_'That tone again.' _Kakashi knew that he _really _had to make up to the boy. Perhaps if Naruto got better chakra control over the month, he would help go over nature transformation with him and his team. Naruto was a lover of ninjutsu techniques. He was sure he would enjoy learning his elemental affinity.

"Cheer up, kid." Kakashi ruffled his student's yellow hair with his gloved hand. "Trust me, this is for the best. Now, this person I have in mind to help you for the month has much more experience as teacher than I am. He's trained a whole slew of students before I accepted the position of jōnin-sensei."

"Really?" Naruto had to rise his eyebrow at that. "Who did you have in mind?"

"Come with me and find out." Kakashi waved at Naruto, gesturing the blond to follow him. Naruto did a small shrug and followed Kakashi into the hallway of the tower where him and the survivors of the preliminaries fought.

"Here he is." Kakashi gestured his hand forward to point at Naruto's temporary teacher for the month.

Naruto rose his eyebrow, his face staring at a man with the standard navy blue long-sleeve shirt that he seen several Konoha shinobi on the rank chūnin or jōnin have on. He had a blue bandanna-like hitai-ate on his head, black shades, and a polite smile on his face. "Hello, Naruto."

Naruto immediately recognized this man, and couldn't help but to scowl. "This, Kakashi-sensei? This is the person you got me?"

Ebisu and Naruto had history with each other. The first time he met the older man was when he met Konohamaru, spent an afternoon with him and taught him the basics of the **Henge no Jutsu** and the **Oiroke no Jutsu** as well. Ebisu had been one of the many adults back in the village who only looked at Naruto as if he was just the Kyūbi and nothing else. Not only that, but he only viewed Konohamaru as the grandson of the Sandaime, and nothing else. Only calling him "Honorable Grandson" and nothing else. He only saw them as those titles, and not as individuals. He was someone Naruto wouldn't even want to associate with.

Despite being lauded as some sort of "super-teacher" by Kakashi-sensei, it didn't change the fact that Ebisu was a narrow-minded man.

"Is there something wrong with Ebisu, Naruto?" Kakashi calmly asked, pulling out his signature Icha Icha book.

"You damn skippy! I met this guy before." Naruto pointed to Ebisu indignantly. "This guy is a total _loser_! He fell completely for my **Hāremu no Jutsu**!"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes in confusion at the other man, who was starting to look panicked. "What's the '**Hāremu no Jutsu**'?"

Ebisu laughed it off, rubbing his shoulder nervously. "Just a silly technique. Ahahaha. Naruto-kun!" Ebisu turned to face the boy. "If you're quiet, I'll teach you a jutsu."

"Eh, whatever." Naruto muttered, still irritated. It was too late to bother arguing anyway. He was not going to get his way, so he had to accept his fate. Whatever the man would teach him, he would take, and that's it. After that, he wouldn't need his help. If it was really just the basics they were going to teach him, the fight against Neji would be ten times harder. "Let's just get this done."

"I'll catch up to you guys later." Kakashi waved his hand at the two ninjas. "Good luck Naruto, and think about my question!" He then disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the technique Naruto recognized as the **Shunshin no Jutsu**.

Naruto harrumphed, "Stupid Kakashi-sensei..." He then glared at his newer teacher. "So, are we going to learn something or what?"

An eyebrow was visible from Ebisu's face. "Is there something wrong with you and Kakashi-kun, Naruto-kun?"

The yellow haired boy shrugged. "Nothing much. Just Kakashi-sensei decided to ditch me for Sasuke."

"Ditch you…?"

"You know, focus on training Sasuke for month and not spare me a bit of his time to teach me too." Naruto explained.

"Maybe he is doing it for the right reason, Naruto-kun."

Naruto scoffed. "What the hell could be the reason?"

Ebisu put a finger on his chin. "Well... Sasuke-kun is the last Uchiha of Konohagakure, a wielder of the dōjutsu Sharingan, and needs someone to help him with it. Since your sensei is the only one in the village who also has the Sharingan, Kakashi is the only one suited for such a job. Therefore, he needs to tutor Sasuke for the month."

Naruto could understand that. He really did. However, his anger was getting the best of him again. "Yeah, but why couldn't he also help _me_ too?! He's the laziest teacher I ever known! He hasn't really taught my team anything. No ninjutsu, no taijutsu or genjutsu! Nothing! All we learned from him are the foundations of 'good teamwork' and chakra control. I mean, that's good stuff and all, but knowing how to work together as a team isn't going to help me defeat Neji!"

The old man sent Naruto an understanding gaze. "You think your sensei is favoring Sasuke over you, hmm?" Naruto nodded. "But you could not be any further from the truth."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Ebisu shook his head. "Kakashi does not favor Sasuke over you or your other teammate. He is simply looking after him."

"For what? Sasuke-teme can take care of himself." Naruto snorted, with a frown on his face.

"You are incorrect yet again. Sasuke needs help. More help than you. The juinjutsu he received from Orochimaru could possibly mess with his mind, Naruto-kun. Kakashi-kun needs to pay close attention to him." _Not to mention the newer influx of power could possibly bring Sasuke over to Orochimaru's side_, Ebisu said in his head with a bead of sweat appearing on his cheek. "Orochimaru is after him. That is why he placed the seal on Sasuke. He wants him."

"But why? Why Sasuke? He's just an ordinary ninja," was Naruto's rebuttal. The older man however shook his head.

"He is a symbol. The last of the Uchiha, the last of the Sharingan users, and the only one who is vulnerable. There are two other users of the Sharingan: someone who is not an Uchiha, and one is a missing-nin traitor and mass murderer. However, both are dangerous shinobi. Sasuke is a growing ninja. You may think he's safe inside the village, and he was for the past 12 years, but these exams showed how easily Orochimaru could infiltrate this village. Sasuke is no longer safe now that he's been bitten. He is also Orochimaru's key to the dōjutsu." Ebisu reasoned, readjusting his black specks on the bridge of his nose. It was a habit he had picked up a long time when perturbed. Orochimaru could not get Sasuke. That would be bad news.

Naruto took a few seconds to digest the information before nodding begrudgingly. It made sense and he admitted that it was a large part of him that was annoyed by Kakashi because the jōnin never even gave him or Sakura any sort of second glance. Instead, he was always paying attention to what Sasuke was doing. Even before the Chūnin Exams. He couldn't lie and say it wasn't out of some level of envy, but it was also, to him, very wrong for a teacher to favor any of his students. Not when the students were "grossly underpowered" as Kakashi put it. If anything, he should have been helping them out even more.

In the end, Naruto agreed with Ebisu's logic. He didn't like it, and it hardly made him feel better, but he understood what his jōnin-sensei was doing. He just wished Kakashi-sensei paid attention to them before. Maybe if he actually did train them right after the mission to Nami no Kuni, he wouldn't feel so weak and helpless. Maybe he wouldn't have _Ebisu _of all people training him for the month.

But… He couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Kakashi did leave him Ebisu, despite being the very same man who fell for one of his weakest moves in his arsenal. The man was a tokubetsu jōnin, right? That had to count for something. He, at least, could respect the title.

"Hey, Ebisu-sensei," Naruto appropriately called the man, since the man would be tutoring him for the next month. "What do you plan to teach me for the month?"

"What do you think you need help with, Naruto-kun?" The man asked him. The tone seemed genuinely curious and wondering.

Naruto found this strange. Not many teachers would ask him that. He knew how Ebisu acted towards him as well – he treated him like he was crap. The fact that he was gentle with Naruto didn't quite make sense, but in the end, he didn't think about it too much.

Instinctively, Naruto almost shouted out, 'Badass ninjutsu!' but he knew he had to think realistically here. Naruto thought it over, and put a finger on his chin. He found an answer after thinking it over. "Um... I guess I need help with my chakra control. Kakashi-sensei always tells me that's one of the biggest things I need help with. I think I need some ninjutsu as well. Something offensive and can defeat Neji in the next round. Anything else that could help me."

Ebisu nodded, accepting the answer. "I planned to first work on helping you gain better chakra control before starting on anything else. Kakashi-kun stated you needed help with your control, and you basically confirmed it." Naruto nodded, looking somewhat crestfallen. "However, should you prove to get past chakra control, I suppose we can work on you learning one or two ninjutsu over the break."

Naruto grinned widely, getting excited. "Alright! Let's get to it!"

Ebisu nodded, "Follow me. We're going to go to a place where we can work on your chakra control. I assume you know the Tree Climbing Exercise?"

"Yeah! I mastered that _way_ back."

"Very good. That makes this much easier. We will work on walking on water."

"Walking on water?" Naruto quirked his eyebrow as they started walking out the building of the central tower of the Forest of Death. "Is that the next chakra control exercise?"

"Yes, it is. I'll explain more. Right now, we are going back to the village."

* * *

Ebisu stared at Naruto for hours as they worked on the basics of the water walking exercise. Unlike before when he met the boy, where he was loud and boisterous, this Naruto he was looking over was focused and serious. He worked at his task for an hour, in silence, only asking if he was doing it right or wrong. Sometimes, he asked for advice but otherwise he worked at it alone, without Ebisu saying much.

_Naruto has potential,_ Ebisu started to reason in his head. He taught Konohamaru, his current charge, how to use the **Henge no Jutsu**, a technique he was struggling to grasp in school. Despite showing him such an uncouth technique – something the blond boy dubbed as the **Oiroke** **no Jutsu **– the Uzumaki showed the younger Sarutobi how to use the **Henge **in order to use his perverse variation. Something good came out of it.

Reviewing that unpleasant memory, Ebisu seen something. Naruto was an innovator. Off of both the transformation and the shadow clone techniques, he created a technique that was effective against certain opponents – heck, it was effective against him. Despite it being only a distraction technique, the **Haremū** **no Jutsu** was still a sign that Naruto did have potential. He spent hours devising such a technique. He had the chakra to do so, and the imagination as well. If he focused, and put his mind to it, he could accomplish a lot. Something like that couldn't be ignored, even to someone like him.

Soon, Ebisu started thinking that training Naruto for the Chūnin Exams wouldn't be such a chore.

* * *

Naruto arduously worked at the Water Surface Walking Exercise for hours but did not move past standing on the surface shakily before falling in a minute later. "Argh! Why can't I do it? I'm doing what you're telling me. I'm trying to change my chakra flow constantly over the water, but it isn't working." Naruto growled, climbing out the stream of water they worked on in the village.

Ebisu noticed it as well. He didn't not understand why Naruto was falling in. He was doing the technique properly from what he seen. He frowned, and thought it over for a minute. "Naruto-kun, are you still suffering from your battle with Kiba Inuzuka?"

Naruto shook his head, "Kiba did nothing too bad to me. Not to my chakra anyway. Although," Naruto frowned, replaying a memory in his head. "I did have a run in with that snake bastard in the Forest of Death before."

_'Snake bastard? Orochimaru, I presume. How amusing of a nickname.' _Ebisu thought dryly in his head, before his eyes widened widely behind his glasses in realization. _'Wait. Is it possible that Orochimaru did something to him in the Forest of Death to cause his chakra control to have complications?' _"Did Orochimaru do something to you, anything at all?"

"Yeah! He did some weird technique on me. He called it the '**Gogyō** **Fūin' **and he used it to knock me out."

"Naruto, let me see your stomach. I need to see something." Ebisu said seriously, immediately recognizing the name of the technique.

Naruto looked at him queerly. "Why do you need to see my stomach? The hell? That's weird, man!"

"I need to see your seal on your stomach." Ebisu said in a hushed tone, rolling his eyes at the teen's suggestion. Naruto looked at him again like he said something very odd, but he obeyed. He took off his already wet t-shirt and allowed the man to see his torso. "Now, draw some chakra so your seal can reveal itself."

Naruto nodded, clapped his hands and drew some chakra forth. It was somewhat hard molding chakra to do it, but he accomplished it.

While Ebisu was not a master of fūinjutsu, he had at least known enough to recognize how the Yondaime's seal looked like. He also knew that the name and purpose of Orochimaru's technique. Naruto's seal, the **Hakke no Fūin Shiki**, was there but was surrounded with five weird kanji symbols. "Metal", "Wood", "Fire", "Water" and "Earth" the purple kanji read. As Naruto channel chakra, they glowed brightly, a sign the boy's chakra and the symbols were connected together.

"He must have tampered with your chakra control. With that seal, a normal person could barely channel their chakra. I am surprised you even have enough chakra to keep going. We have been practicing this exercise for hours!" How could something go unsaid? Did the boy not feel something weird with chakra? How could he have not known?

Still, was this entirely his fault? Didn't anyone check on him, like his teacher, or was the attention only given to Sasuke and his seal? This sealing technique was made to seal away chakra, and even seal away the Kyūbi's chakra away, he was betting, or else, why would this seal be placed directly on Naruto's navel?

Orochimaru truly was a scary individual. Ebisu shook his head in annoyance. "Naruto, we are going to stop training for a while."

Naruto looked nervous, his eyes panicking silently. "Am I... in some sort of trouble?"

"No. You are going to be fine." The man in blue sighed. "Just be relieved we figured out that something was wrong with your chakra in the first place. If left unchecked, this seal could have potentially killed you."

Naruto gulped. What the hell did that snake shithead _do _to him? "How are we going to get the seal off? Can you do it, Ebisu-sensei?"

Ebisu shook his head. "Unfortunately, my knowledge of sealing techniques is limited, Naruto-kun. However, we shall take this to the Sandaime Hokage. His knowledge of fūinjutsu can solve this problem."

"Alright." Naruto said, and grabbed for his damp black t-shirt, but did not put it back on. He opted to instead put on his drier jacket.

* * *

"It is good that you came to find me, Ebisu-kun." The old man smiled in his office suite, inspecting Naruto's seal with a shrewd eye. "Ah yes. A classical application of the **Gogyō Fūin**. A technique I used many times in the First Shinobi World War, and a technique I taught all three of my students. This is definitely the work of Orochimaru. Luckily, I can unseal your chakra and undo the damage."

"Really? Yes! Thanks, old man!" Naruto grinned, happy that he could can get back to his training soon.

The Sandaime nodded, and applied the lightest amount of chakra to his fingertips, his fingers glowing blue with chakra. Ebisu paid attention to it, looking at the similar kanji that lit up in his fingers. "This is the **Gogyō Kaiin**: the counterpart technique to the fūinjutsu placed on you before by my student. This will allow you to access your chakra once again easily. Hold still so I can apply it."

"Got you!" Naruto said with a boisterous grin, but unfortunately was not prepared for Sarutobi's strong strike to his stomach. He groaned loudly as the old man slammed his fingertips into his stomach, and almost fell back, if it wasn't for Ebisu. The older man caught him, holding Naruto firmly by the arms. "Holy crap, what was _that_?"

The Hokage almost looked sheepish, "I am sorry, Naruto-kun. It seems I underestimated my own strength. Still, it was necessary. Now you can continue training in peace." The old man sat down back in his chair. He sent a slight nod towards them, and said, "If there isn't anything else, I bid you farewell."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Ebisu said with a smile, and bowed to his leader. Naruto sent a small nod towards the Sandaime as his thanks.

Naruto pumped his arm happily, and was about to leave the room as Ebisu started to walk towards the door. Naruto then stopped, and looked back towards his grandfatherly figure. "Hey, Sarutobi-jiji. Do you know the point of the Chūnin Exams?"

Sarutobi raised his eyebrow, surprised at the question. "Why are you asking?"

"Because of Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto frowned at the mention of his teacher. "I asked him for training for the exams, but he told me that I didn't need to know a whole bunch of techniques to win. He told me to think it over the break and then answer him."

Ebisu sent Naruto a glance. _'So, that's why he's been quiet today. He's been trying to find the answer to Kakashi's question.'_

The Hokage knew the answer, and he knew why Kakashi had asked Naruto the question. It would get Naruto to think carefully if he thought about it to himself. "Your teacher has given you the question for you to solve, Naruto-kun. I cannot, with good conscience, completely give you the answer to your question. However," Sarutobi's eyes twinkled with some mirth. "I can give you some words of advice. The exams are more than being a tournament of fighting. While you can win the whole tournament, that doesn't guarantee you a promotion to chūnin."

"How can that be though? If you can beat everybody in the tournament, how can you _not _be chūnin material?" Naruto's frown gotten deeper, trying to figure out the answer.

"Just because you have the fighting skills of a chūnin, doesn't mean you actually deserve becoming a chūnin," came from Ebisu, who stepped into the chat again. "Everybody has the potential to become a chūnin in the exams, but that doesn't mean they all can become one. The exams are much more than fighting. In order to become a chūnin, you must act like one, and think like one. Thus, you must know what it is to be chūnin. Sometimes, there's more than one way than surviving a fight."

Naruto frowned, wanting nothing more than to throw his hands up in frustration. "This isn't really advice... It's more like a riddle than advice. Like all that 'Underneath the underneath' crap that Kakashi-sensei spews."

The Hokage chuckled at Naruto's unabashed attitude. "It is because it is a good quote, my boy. 'Look underneath the underneath.' Sometimes, something that seems like it only has one purpose, serves many. You have plenty of time to figure it out. Sleep it over, come back to it after a few days." Sarutobi then took a puff from his pipe. "But I know you, Naruto. You will not sleep until you think you have it figured out. I have no doubt you will have figured out soon enough."

Naruto beamed at his grandfatherly figure and uncharacteristically bowed deeply. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi was surprised, but smiled nevertheless, got up from his chair again and ruffled Naruto's blond hair. "You are welcome. You are also welcome to ask me about anything anytime boy."

"Heh. I will. Well, Ebisu-sensei," Naruto turned to the blue-wearing tokebetsu jōnin with his black shades. "Let's continue training!"

Ebisu smiled, "While I admire your exuberance, Naruto-kun, I have decided that we are going to take a break for the rest of today. It has been a long day and you just came from the tournament. We will begin again tomorrow when you are fresh and anew."

Naruto pouted, but he understood. "Okay, Ebisu-sensei!"

"If I may, I would like to have a word with you, Ebisu-kun." The Hokage said, now settled firmly in his seat again.

Ebisu nodded. "Yes, my lord. Naruto-kun, I will see you tomorrow."

"Sure thing!" And the blond left.

* * *

"So, how do you evaluate Naruto so far, Ebisu-kun?"

"In my humble opinion, I think Naruto-kun has to shape up fast, or else he will not be able to defeat Neji Hyūga in the Chūnin Exams, much less be considered a chūnin." Ebisu pronounced, trying to be as blunt as he could, without showing any ill intent of the boy's skills. "I suspect now that his chakra is not restricted, he will be able to easily do the Water Walking Exercise, but other than chakra control exercises, and the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**, Naruto-kun doesn't have a lot to work with."

"Ah, but you are wrong in that sense, my boy. He does have a lot to work with, preferably with the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**. After all, despite Naruto-kun having the technique for months in his possession, he has yet to figure out that his clones can be used more than fighting tools."

Ebisu's eyes widened in realization. "Are you suggesting I should tell him about the secret of the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**? Is that not a little dangerous? Most ninja cannot even exploit it."

"And why not?" Sarutobi snorted, putting his pipe in his mouth again, before taking a small puff from it. Smoke billowed out of his mouth as he exhaled. "…It is a wonder how Naruto-kun has not figured out that he can receive memories and experience from his dispelled clones yet or why Kakashi has not told him the secret of Naruto's most used technique. With him knowing that, his training can be increased exponentially. It is also perfect since Naruto has extremely huge amounts of chakra for his age. The danger is extremely cut down. Do you know how much clones the boy can make on a whim? Several hundreds, and even then, these clones still have a decent amount of chakra to use. I believe by the time of the exams, he will be more than ready for his opponent."

Sarutobi smiled at Ebisu, putting his pipe on his table. "Originally, I was going to have someone else take over. However, due to him not seeking out Naruto liked I wanted, and getting... Sidetracked by his own activities, I think you can take over for him for the month. He can see to Naruto after the exams. With you as Naruto's teacher, he'll be more than ready. I am counting on you to shape him up quickly."

Ebisu nodded, also thinking to himself how many things he could teach the boy. He could review for a few days on chakra control, then move on with elemental training, something that could take years, could be condensed to a matter of weeks. Finally, he could help him out a little on taijutsu, though it would not be a big focus, because learning a fighting style or improving on taijutsu took months that Naruto did not have. Besides, Neji already had superior taijutsu thanks to years of training. Focusing on teaching Naruto anything like that was pointless.

And he knew how many clones the boy could make now. Heck, he even had first-hand experience… And he had experienced the perverse technique that followed too...

_How uncomfortable of an experience_, Ebisu thought to himself, flushing at the memories.

Reminder of his weakness for naked women aside, the boy had potential. He would draw it out, and it would be a no-brainer. As a former chūnin instructor for five years, a tokubetsu jōnin for five more, and having experience in training many youthful shinobi, he would draw such power out this young man too. However, what was so surprising was the complete confidence the Hokage had in Naruto. It was almost startling. It was like the Hokage knew Naruto would grow and become a great shinobi.

Ebisu would have to judge for himself.

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N:** So, there you go. A little piece of a story I wrote a while back. I got a few more chapters I'll update – slowly – on. Don't expect this story to be update too much since I got STF and TD to worry about. This story is more of an apology story for the lack of updates, broken promises, and seemingly abandonment of my stories. I know I hate it when I am starting to love a fic, and then the author decides half-way through to abandon it. It's not right.

Then again, I understand it now more than ever. It's hard to keep up with a fic, especially when you do something super ambitious, and STF has been my most ambitious fic yet. More than anything I have written as of yet, and it is kinda coming back in my face. I got to commit to it. Going to be hard since I got a lot of more things on my plate, but I shall try.

I also need a newer beta, and I got to reach out to one.

Bah, one thing at a time.

Anyway, thank you guys for reading, and I shall write up an another chappie soon.

**Translation List**:

Gogyō Fūin – Five Elements Seal  
Gogyō Kaiin – Five Elements Unseal  
Hakke no Fūin Shiki – Eight Trigrams Sealing Style  
Haremū no Jutsu – Harem Technique  
Henge no Jutsu – Transformation Technique  
Juinjutsu – Cursed Seal Technique  
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone Technique  
Oiroke no Jutsu – Sexy Technique

Update (1/21/17) – Fixed up some grammar issues. Removed some things I didn't like, and cleaned up quite a bit. Thanks for reading (or rereading, depending who you are).


	2. II

Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_. Please support the official release.

* * *

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 2  
__**  
One Week Later...**_

Ebisu, after being pleased with Naruto's progress with chakra control for the day, stopped Naruto from doing anything. "That is enough for the day, Naruto-kun. We are finished for now."

Naruto nodded, dispelled the two clones he created to help him with the exercise, and felt his chakra returning to him. A small burst of memories as well came with the chakra. The blond-haired boy was starting to get used to the rush of memories his clones gave him after they popped, especially after hours of training. How he didn't realize the clones gave him memories before was beyond him.

However, the change in pace would be great to Naruto. Hours of training with his chakra control became days, and Naruto had done this for a week. It felt like forever that he was doing the Water Walking Exercise. There was little to gain now that he has moved on the water, actually sparred a little on the water with his clones (in the hopes to simulate a real battle), and stayed on the water for extended amounts of time. All it could do was strength his pools of chakra, to which they were already strong enough. The blond-haired boy felt he had a good grip on his control now, and wanted to move onto something else.

He had voiced this opinion to Ebisu a few days ago, but his temporary teacher had stated Naruto still had the week to finish working on his control. The jōnin didn't want Naruto to move on from training his chakra. Naruto felt compelled to try again today. After all, it was the end of the week.

"So, Sensei, what are we going to do next? We're doing chakra control, but I wanna know what we're going to do next?" Not exactly subtle in his question, Naruto nevertheless felt like he needed to ask.

"I think it is about time to move on and put your new handle on your chakra control to use." Ebisu smiled, seeing Naruto's face light up in glee. "Yes, it is time to work on some new ninjutsu for you to learn. Tomorrow, I will see how much you know, and gauge from there where I want to take your training at."

Naruto did a silent cheer in his head. Instead of the dull things like practicing his chakra control, he could learn exhilarating things in ninjutsu. Learning more ninjutsu would kick so much butt. Naruto smiled, and cheered. "Right! I see you then, Ebisu-sensei!"

"Farewell, Naruto-kun!" Ebisu waved, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto recognized that technique immediately, rubbing his chin. "Hmm. I've just gotta get Ebisu-sensei to teach me how to use that technique one of these days..."

Naruto grinned, walking away from the training grounds and back into town. Already, he was progressing quickly. Pretty soon, he would be twice as strong as he was before.

"Chūnin Exams, here I come! I can't wait to show up Neji's ass, hell, even Sasuke while I'm at it." Sasuke was a potential opponent after all. If he did beat Neji, he would have to worry about others as well. "Gonna show Sakura-chan I'm so cool!"

A pity he could not show Sakura – or anyone for that matter – any of his ninjutsu before the match. Ebisu stressed that Naruto needed to keep the element of surprise on his side, otherwise potential opponents could get information on him in order to counter him. It made sense seeing that four of his potential opponents – Shikamaru, Sasuke, Shino, and that shithead Neji – were denizens of Konohagakure. Ebisu had promised him that Naruto would learn ninjutsu before the month's end. Ebisu stressed a powerful shinobi kept his trump card to himself until the optimal time to use it. Nothing trivial like everyday life affairs or to show off/up a person.

And Ebisu was right, for what it was worth. Naruto personally didn't like it, but he was right. He needed to not show off to anyone. A ninja should save his best tricks for last.

Plus, now Naruto thought about, there wasn't really anything he could show. Yeah, so what that he could walk on water perfectly, and fight on it? That wouldn't help in a place like the Chūnin Exams, where they would be fighting in a _stadium_.

"Not to mention, Sasuke-teme isn't even here." Naruto muttered, thinking about his troublesome teammate and rival. His eyebrows furrowed, and a frown appeared on his face. "He's out training with Kakashi-sensei..."

It still hurt knowing his teacher refused to help him out when he needed it the most. After all, he was in the Chūnin Exams as well, wasn't he? He needed Kakashi-sensei's help shaping up. He hated how he felt in the Forest of Death. If the man who attacked them, Orochimaru, wanted to kill them, he could have easily done so.

Now that he thought about it, what about Sakura? Just because she wasn't in the exams didn't mean she didn't need any training either. She needed a bunch of training as well. Even how awesome she was. That was messed up, and it annoyed Naruto. The irrational part of him screamed out, once, that his teacher was playing favorites, but he knew that it was much deeper than that. He could see why Sasuke would need a lot of help – Gaara didn't look like anybody you messed around with. Kakashi was also the only one that could teach Sasuke how to use his Sharingan as well because he had one Sharingan eye.

Then he could see Ebisu's reasoning as well. Sasuke was not just the Uchiha boy he knew. He was the last of his clan. He was a symbol, and ultimately, a target. That bastard, Orochimaru, would stop at nothing to get the boy's Sharingan. Sasuke was the only living person who Orochimaru could obtain it from as well, and compared to Orochimaru, Sasuke was a kitten. The snake bastard could easily take Sasuke, kill him, and take his eyes. However, from what Naruto got from Ebisu, Orochimaru wanted Sasuke for himself, to take him, and to bring him over to his side. Sway him away with power.

Admittedly, Naruto realized that it had been a good tactic. Sasuke always talked about his wishes to get stronger, and better. It paralleled with Naruto's own desires to become a great shinobi, but Sasuke never talked about getting stronger to serve his village in good ways, like becoming a jōnin or ANBU. In fact, now that Naruto thought about it, Sasuke only wanted to be in these exams to "test himself". To fight strong opponents, and gauge how strong he had gotten. Unlike Naruto who wanted to become a chūnin, to get missions to help him climb the ladder to become a Hokage, Sasuke seemed less interested in becoming a chūnin and more about obtaining power.

Then… he remembered back in the mission back in Nami no Kuni. Naruto frowned thinking about that one, remembering how close Team Kakashi came towards death. He remembered how Sasuke almost died, and his wishes for Naruto to kill a person who had plagued him for a long time. His own brother, Itachi: the source of all Sasuke's ambitions to become a terribly strong shinobi. Believing he would die, Sasuke asked Naruto to kill Itachi for him. That was all taken back when Sasuke actually lived. He acted like he never said anything to Naruto about anything.

Not that Naruto ventured to try to get Sasuke to speak about it. It was a touchy subject. Naruto hadn't done much research on Sasuke's older brother, but he knew Itachi Uchiha was a missing-nin, wanted for the genocide of the Uchiha Clan. If that was true, then talking to Sasuke about it – who was always so standoffish, and aloof – was a big no-no. He would get nothing out of it. Still, he could understand. Sasuke's own brother killed everyone in Sasuke's clan.

A feat that Naruto couldn't even imagine. How could anyone kill all those people, and be okay with that? Them all being family? If Naruto knew how it was to have a brother, and have his brother betray him, he would probably hate him as much as Sasuke hated Itachi. Sometimes, Naruto could hear Sasuke whisper his name under his breath, when he thought no one was hearing in a spiteful, almost _obsessive _tone.

Naruto had no idea what was the deal with his rival/teammate, but perhaps it was good Kakashi-sensei was looking after Sasuke. He didn't like how him, and Sakura-chan got ignore because of it, but perhaps he could not exactly fault his sensei for attending to Sasuke. Especially if Sasuke was as bad as Ebisu-sensei said he was. He didn't want Sasuke doing something _hectic _if Orochimaru really was someone who could get in the Uchiha boy's head.

Bah. Worrying about something just wasn't his style, Naruto decided. If anything, he should be worrying about getting some chow in before the night began! All that training and burning up energy put his hunger up to high gear.

"Still," Naruto frowned. "What does Kakashi-sensei's words mean? How do I become a chūnin without winning the tournament?" He wondered out loud. The silence being his own answer.

He found his trip back to the village, and his dinner at Ichiraku Ramen strangely quiet and thoughtful. Ayame-nē-chan and Teuchi-jiji asked him what was wrong later that night, but they could do nothing much to bring him out of his thoughts. Not even food could do it.

* * *

_**The Day After…**_

"Today will be a shorter day, Naruto-kun. I have other duties to attend to. My training of young Konohamaru-sama hasn't stopped now that I have accepted to train you," was what Ebisu told him when they started their training session. "I hope to first see how many ninjutsu you have at your disposal, see your chakra affinity, and have you started on working with your element."

"Um, chakra affinity?" Naruto questioned. "I never heard of that phrase before."

"You have not?" Ebisu raised an eyebrow. "It entails back to Nature Transformation." Naruto gave him a blank look. The instructor sighed, a little in irritation for Naruto's ignorance. "Nature Transformation is an advanced form of chakra control where one molds and defines their chakra into their preassigned chakra nature. In Layman's terms, it simply means changing one's chakra to emulate an element. Fire, water, earth, lightning, or wind."

"Oh!" Naruto's face lit up in realization. "So… Th-That's like, using Katon or Suiton techniques?"

"Yes." Ebisu did a small smile. "Everyone has a different chakra nature, where their chakra is naturally attuned to an element. A demonstration perhaps will help you understand even more."

Slowly, Ebisu did a small set of hand seals. Naruto watched curiously as Ebisu formed a small Fire Release technique where it involved summoning a small fireball in his hand. "This is my natural chakra nature: fire. My chakra naturally is attuned to fire, and thus, I have an affinity for Katon techniques."

"Hot damn! So, I'm going to be learning how to use elemental techniques?! Kick ass!" Naruto said excitedly, jumping up and down while cheering loudly, "Yes!"

"Settle yourself, Naruto-kun." Ebisu frowned, finding Naruto's use for profanity a little off putting. "This is not something you'll get down in a day or two. You may have an easier time learning techniques from this path of ninjutsu but learning and developing techniques take some time doing since you are getting used to using your chakra in that state. This is a skill many people take _years _developing and mastering." The man hid away a small smile. He exaggerated a little bit with this. While what he said was quite true, it wouldn't be so bad for Naruto since the technique he had been provided with before could help him with training quite a bit. A lot of shinobi did not have the luxury using the **Kage Bunshin **in that way. Many could not manage making more than one clone without suffering some sort of ill effect.

However, Ebisu had accomplished making Naruto annoyed. Naruto's reaction was predictable. "Years?! I don't have years to figure this stuff out. I got only to the end of this month to get stronger. What's the point of showing me something I can't learn now?!"

"Fortunately, you do have the **Kage Bunshin** to use to condense _some_ of this training down to simply a month." Ebisu admitted, deciding to stop teasing Naruto for now. It was amusing seeing Naruto get riled up, but he had to remind Naruto not to always take things at face value. "I told you to not show so many emotions in battle, Naruto-kun. Enemies might use your anger to just make you trip up. Do not believe everything everyone says is truth."

Naruto blushed in embarrassment, realizing that he did get incensed fast because of that. "Sorry, Sensei. You're right. Okay, so we're doing this thing now? You're going to show me my element?"

The tokubetsu jōnin pulled something out his pocket. Naruto realized it was a piece of white paper. Instead of asking off the fly what the hell it was, like Naruto wanted to do, the boy waited until Ebisu provided an explanation. "This is a special paper that reacts when a person channels chakra into it. The following reaction from the chakra shows what chakra nature you have. If the paper ignites and becomes ash, you have fire-type chakra. If the paper cuts in half, you have wind. If the paper becomes damp, you have water. If the paper wrinkles up, you have lightning. Finally, if the paper becomes dirt and crumbles away, you have earth."

"Gotchu." Naruto nodded, understanding what he had to do. "Gimme the paper."

Ebisu handed it over, and Naruto held the paper up with his two thumbs. Naruto furrowed his brow in light concentration and focused his eyes to the paper. Then, he applied the smallest amount of chakra into the paper, knowing going overboard with it would be a waste. The reaction of the paper was instantaneous. What was white paper was transmuted into brown dirt.

Naruto wiped his hands of the brown grime and looked at his teacher expectantly. "I guess my element is Earth."

Ebisu looked in interest, grasping his chin with his fingers. "Interesting. I expected more of an offensive element like fire for you. A major of Konohagakure's forces have fire as their affinity. Nonetheless, this does not make it difficult to train you. I am proficient in three chakra natures myself."

"Really? Which? I thought you said you only could use fire."

"I said fire was my original chakra affinity." The jōnin corrected his student. "Many jōnin as myself can use more than one element, and I can use Fire, Earth, and Water Release."

Naruto whistled. "I wanna use more than one element one day..."

"You can. It could take years to do so. Knowing a few ninjutsu in an element is one thing, but to master it means you can use ninjutsu in the element almost without thinking about it."

Naruto frowned slightly, thinking a bit back when Ebisu said he could use three elements. "Sensei, if it's not so rude to ask, but I've got a question for you."

The bandanna wearing jōnin shrugged. "Ask away."

"You said you're good in three elements, right?" The man nodded, prompting Naruto to continue his lines of questions. "So, if you're good at ninjutsu, how come you're not a full-fledged jōnin?"

"A good question. Well, while it is true I am proficient in ninjutsu, and my chakra is slightly above average, I lack jōnin-level skills in taijutsu, or genjutsu. I also am one of the best tutors of Konohagakure. Years before as a chūnin teacher, teaching the youth at the Academy, has helped with that." Ebisu nodded, admitting to his faults very easily, not in the slightest insulted by Naruto's question. He withheld in a sigh, however. The man thought the question Naruto had for him would related to his secret "affinity" for literature written by Jiraiya-sama. The mischievous little scamp.

Naruto nodded, absorbing the information in. Pretty cool that he was proficient in ninjutsu, something Naruto aimed to one day be the best in. Out of all three of the main class of ninja combat, ninjutsu was something Naruto found himself enjoying. Taijutsu was a close second, but ninjutsu was where it was at. "Alrighty. So, what's next again?"

"Show me the amount of ninjutsu you know." Ebisu then moved a bit away for Naruto to have some breathing space to use any technique.

"Okay." Naruto quickly did a hand seal and demonstrated first the **Henge no Jutsu**… Or rather a variation. One Ebisu has come to know and despise. "How's this, Ebisu-sensei~!" Naruto cooed in his **Oiroke no Jutsu **form, his voice imitating a woman's.

That earned him a punch to the back of his head from a now irritated Ebisu, who rushed up to Naruto. "Ow!" The boy exclaimed, returning to his normal 13-year old form while holding his head. "What did I do?"

"BE SERIOUS!" Ebisu yelled, trying his best to hide his blush, but failing miserably as Naruto mischievously smiled his way. "A simple transformation would have been just fine!"

"Heheh, sorry Ebisu-sensei." Naruto apologized, though it sounded _very_ insincere to Ebisu. The man's right eyebrow twitched. "Alright, I can do **Henge**, **Oiroke**-"

"Feh! _That _technique is hardly useful." The man scoffed and moved back to the space he occupied before.

"Hey! It is too!" Naruto protested childishly, watching Ebisu's retreating form. "It worked on tons of people. You, Sarutobi-jiji-" That earned him another smack to his head. "Ow!"

"Do not address Sarutobi-sama so informally!" Ebisu barked, turning his head to glare at Naruto. "Plus, I do not believe you. As if Hokage-sama would fall for such a trick."

The blond-haired teen snorted. "Try reading the report with that Mizuki-teme in it..."

"Be serious, Naruto. My time is short, as is my patience." Ebisu warned, his frown deepening. "Show me your other techniques."

Naruto sighed, a little pout on his face. "Fine..." A single hand seal later, and Naruto showed next the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**, with producing one clone. "I can do the regular and tajū version." A small grin lit up on his face. "As you know."

"As I _do_ know." Ebisu admitted with a sigh, remembering the memory of Naruto using the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**… in conjunction with Naruto's perverted version of the **Henge no Jutsu**. "What else?"

"**Kawirimi no Jutsu!**" Switching positions with Ebisu, who blinked in slight confusion until the effect ended, Naruto grinned. "I can switch with full-body targets easily. Heh."

"Interesting." Switching with humanoid targets was a little hard than doing such with smaller objects. Then distance was added in, and the technique got a bit harder. It took much chakra to do so, for most genin and some chūnin anyway. So, it was somewhat impressive Naruto had managed it. Not exactly awe-inspiring since the boy had a large amount of chakra at his disposal but it was something. Not a problem for Naruto since he had quite a lot of chakra to begin with it. "Do you have any offensive ninjutsu?"

Naruto frowned a little. "No, I don't."

"I suppose it is time to fix that." Ebisu smiled. "Well, I am satisfied with what I seen. Meet me back here tomorrow at our usual time, and we will go over with the first exercise with working with your chakra nature."

"Eh? More exercises? I thought from here you can start learning your affinity's jutsu?"

"You must first get used to being able to mold and convert your chakra into the element first. Do not worry. Once you learn the steps, you will be able to start learning some ninjutsu."

"Alright, Sensei!" Naruto pumped his fist. "Tomorrow's going to kick some butt!"

Ebisu beamed, finding Naruto's excitement contagious. "See you soon, Naruto-kun."

Ebisu disappeared in a plume of smoke. Naruto pouted, and reminded himself to get his temporary teacher to teach him that **Shunshin no Jutsu**.

Right after he learned some awesome Earth Release techniques after all.

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N: **I decided to take it slow, and not give Naruto a huge power-up. So, a considerable shorter chapter than before. I also decided to change up a little bit of canon Naruto with a new elemental affinity. Earth Release. Shake up the usual Wind Release affinity. Naruto's gonna be an Earth Release master! Yay! Ha, not really.

Still though, I got plans for Naruto and some ideas on what to bring him next. Originally, Chapter 2 was more into giving Naruto an immediate change, but I realize I would have just ruined the flow of the story. So, slower, shorter, more concentrated chapters. This story will not focus on Naruto getting god-tier as soon as he entered the exams. If you want that, go look at Stop The Future instead for a strong-as-hell Naruto. This one will be more balanced.

While in the anime/manga, we don't really see much of Ebisu's techniques, I decided to make him stand out (and give an explanation of his rank) and give him specialization in ninjutsu. Nothing else, of course. I also decided to be faithful to canon and not change around Naruto's personality too much around. A far cry from _The Disciple_'s sullen Naruto, and _Stop The Future_'s obsession about making sure another Fourth Shinobi World War doesn't happen. So more than likely no stoic Naruto with a magic sword, capable of getting many of girls with his stark, dashing looks.

Thanks for reading. Up next, we shall delve more into Naruto's new found affinity, and more pondering from Naruto on Kakashi's advice.

**Translation List:**

Katon - Fire Release

Shunshin no Jutsu - Body Flicker Technique

Suiton - Water Release

**Update: 1/24/17 –** Fixed up some grammar, removed any sort of possible continuity errors, and took out anything I didn't like.

I will admit, this chapter has been controversial. People did not/do not like my changing of Naruto's elemental affinity due to it turning out to be weaker than Sasuke's chakra affinity in Lightning. However, in canon, Sasuke also has a set of Fire Release ninjutsu that are ultimately stronger against Naruto's canon affinity of wind anyway, so….

But I do have plans with the Earth Release ninjutsu to quell such naysayers… Maybe. I hope I just don't alienate more people doing so. Haha.


	3. III

Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_. Please support the official release.

* * *

_A __Nugget__ Of Advice, Chapter 3_

_**The Next Day…**_

"The first steps to using Earth Release ninjutsu is learning how to mold and control the earth around you." Ebisu pointed to the ground under them. "I want you to focus your chakra into your hands, glue it to the ground, and pick up the dirt with your hands."

"What's the point of this?" Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion. "I can pick up dirt already."

"With chakra, Naruto-kun." Ebisu shook his head in slight exasperation. "Think. We can all simply pick up dirt, but it is soft, and falls apart. I am asking you to pick it up with your _chakra_ and to not spill a bit of it. Almost all Earth Release ninjutsu uses preexisting sources of Earth in order to create techniques. More advanced users can simply create earth from their chakra. Right now, you will be learning to manipulate the earth beneath your feet, and keeping it all together with your chakra. You will be learning how to do just that for the time being. Now, no more talking. Concentrate."

Naruto sighed, but obeyed, and started channeling chakra in his body. Then, he focused it into his hands, letting it channel through them for a brief moment. Satisfied and comfortable with the amount he had generated, he then placed his hands slowly onto the ground, and tried picking up some of the earth beneath him.

For his troubles, Naruto's hand simply bounced off the ground and nearly smacked him back of his face. Recoiling slightly in some pain, Naruto recovered, blinking owlishly. "Huh? What the hell…?"

Ebisu folded his arms. "Not enough chakra, Naruto-kun. The earth rejected it."

"Not _enough_? But I thought putting too much wouldn't be good."

"Of course not, but the same could be said about putting _too little_. Remember: this is more than learning how to utilize your elemental affinity. This is an advanced level of chakra control. You must find the right balance of chakra. This is why we were doing chakra control exercises for a week previously. Exercises you were _complaining_ about, no less."

Realizing this will be more complicated than he thought, Naruto made a familiar hand seal. "**Kage Bunshin no-**"

"Wait, Naruto-kun." Ebisu called out, grabbing the boy's hand before Naruto could complete his technique. He was no sensor but he could practically _feel_ all that build up of chakra from Naruto. "Before you start making a bunch of shadow clones, I want you to realize what using too many clones can do to your body after you dispel them. Make two, or three clones. However, do not make twenty. The more clones you make, the more clones dispelling at a certain time period can damage you mentally."

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, closing his eyes in frustration. "Gah! Only three? I just wanna get this down so I can start learnin' some ninjutsu! 'Sides, I make a lot of clones all the time, and dispelled 'em, and they never killed me before. Never had to worry about it."

"In due time, Naruto-kun." Ebisu said calmly, not allowing himself to become irritated by the boy's eagerness to push through the important part of the training without caution. "I told you already it takes a while to learn how to use one's chakra to manipulate a chakra nature. Have patience. You have a road ahead of you. Most of this will be done on your spare time. I will start you on the path, but you have to walk it."

Naruto tried not to roll his eyes, sighing deeply. "Fine. Three clones tops, Ebisu-sensei.."

Ebisu was not very convinced. "Take your fingers from behind your back, Naruto. You are not slick."

"Godammit." Naruto swore under his breath. So what if he was crossing his fingers behind his back? If this was most of this to be done in his spare time, why did it matter if Naruto used all the clones he wanted to help him? Besides, just because he had a lot clones doesn't mean he would dispel all of them at once.

"Patience, Naruto-kun." Ebisu dug into his pockets, grabbing a white cloth. He then took his spectacles off, and wiped them clean with the cloth. "Good things come with patience."

"I know, but I got until the end of this month to make sure Neji doesn't win. I need to find ways to beat him."

"Hm. The best way to learn how to do that… Is to study on his source of strength. Tell me: do you know what Neji's most used tool is?"

"Ah, man. Not more of this riddle shit. What? His mind?" Naruto scoffed, remembering that one time Iruka-sensei from the Konoha Academy once said a ninja's "best tool was his mind".

"Not in this case, Naruto-kun." The tobeketsu jōnin smiled thinly; his eyebrow twitched in annoyance at Naruto's uncouth language. "His _eyes_, Naruto-kun. The Byakugan. Do you know anything about the Byakugan?"

"Not… As much as I like." Naruto admitted. Scratching his cheek sheepishly, he uttered, "Haven't exactly found out the trick to that dōjutsu thingie."

"Well, perhaps it's time to look up a solution, if that troubles you. Go to the library in your spare time." Ebisu watched his student's face light up with some distaste.

Naruto groaned. "Ah, man. The library. Studying. So _boring_. I'm not a book person, Sensei."

"I figured," Believe him, Ebisu did, "But it is still good to once in a while read up something that you don't know so it can help you. If you are weak in one area, seek out a person who is strong in said area. Or in this case, _something_. Use everything as your resource."

"If it spares me a speech, maybe I'll go hit up the library… Some time this week." Naruto conceded, saying it in defeat. Rubbing his temples, and sighing, he bemoaned, "Alright. I'll do it, but I wanna get this chakra training down."

"Yes, you will, Naruto-kun. Knowing you, no matter what I say, you will not stop until you prevail." Ebisu chuckled wholeheartedly. "Alright, let us concentrate now. Back to the exercise."

Naruto saluted, a little more energetically. "Yes, sir!" The blond-haired boy once again tried channeling chakra into his hands. This time, a bunch. In his excitement, he practically slammed his hands into the ground…

And felt his hands, and then his arms sink. "Huh? Huh?! AH! SENSEI, HELP! I'M SINKING! I'M _FUCKING SINKING!_"

Ebisu stifled a peal of laughter. "Naruto-kun, calm down. Simply cut the link of chakra flowing through your hands."

"_WHAT?!_"

"Stop channeling chakra, Naruto. Simple as that." Ebisu explained again.

Naruto tried to stop panicking, and stop channeling chakra into his hands. When he felt the channeling chakra in hands ceasing, his arms were completely submerged in dirt, and his face was nearly touching the ground. He immediately lifted himself and ripped his two limbs out of the ground, creating a small, but noticeable hole in the soil. Dirt and grime caked his arms, hands, and fingernails, but his arms were unscathed. Still, Naruto felt icky with all this crap on his limbs. "...Okay, I'll let my clones figure this one out while we do something else."

Ebisu nodded. "Probably a good choice. I will let you decide. I will give you a few minutes to find a nearby water stream and wash yourself. We shall continue training."

Naruto smiled. "Thanks, Sensei. I'll be back!" Then, the boy hopped away, moving to find his objective.

Ebisu chuckled at his student's antics. Boy, was Naruto-kun quite the hassle sometimes.

* * *

Jiraiya had finally made to the outskirts of Konohagakure by noon. The front gates of the village was in his vision, just a small distance out. A great part of him wanted to hit up the entertainment district of Konohagakure, and go to his favorite place in the world: the bathhouses. Where the wonders and contours of the female body awaited his viewing eyes. Just thinking of it put a smile on Jiraiya's face.

Alas, Sarutobi-sensei had given him the urgent call to make it back to the village. Something to do with Orochimaru and his presence in Konohagakure, which was indeed important. Who knew what Orochimaru was planning? It was no secret that the missing-nin despised his former home, and if he dared stepping in the village again after a decade of being banished, then he was about to start trouble again. Among other things that were important – one thing involving his godson – and Jiraiya stopped his operations in other countries temporarily, and returned home to Hi no Kuni.

To be back in his homeland was something that gave Jiraiya a small smile. Jiraiya was a rolling stone, never staying in one place for an extended amount of time. He got to see lands, meet important people, and experience things not many people did in their entire lifetime. However, he did miss the village in his time away. Being back, even for a while, would be nice. How long had it been again? 8 years?

Damn, had it been that long? It had, hadn't it? He only remembered so because he saw Naruto Uzumaki jet through the forest leading outside the territory of the hidden village Konohagakure, stopping by a body of water.

Nostalgia and a great underlying surface of sadness washed over him when he seen Minato's boy run around from the clearing, nearby a training ground. He had last seen the boy around when he was 4, or at the very least got a look at him before going back off to his duties given to him by the Sandaime Hokage. He took a month off from the adventuring, and visited the village to see what was going one, before go back outside the village on another adventure. Naruto probably didn't even remember his face. A damn shame too, seeing as Jiraiya was supposed to be his godfather and all.

Naruto had looked like he was becoming a teen now. The growth spurt didn't apparently kick in, because he looked super short. What was Naruto doing out here? Apparently, he had some sort of grime on him, or something, and he made it to a stream. Washing his arms and hands of the brown stuff. _Was he out here training or something_, Jiraiya wondered to himself. Interesting.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Jiraiya followed the boy back a bit, to where he met back with his teacher. He was not that very aware of his surroundings, he snorted. He made plenty of noise, and Naruto practically raced back to wherever he came from, without so much of a worry. He supposed he could not fault him. Jiraiya, after all, was a master of stealth and had decades of hiding experience over Naruto. So, he easily trailed Naruto, and followed him back.

To which Jiraiya saw Ebisu, a jōnin-level shinobi, tutoring Naruto. Jiraiya wasn't very acquainted with the man, but they knew each other, at least on name and face basis. Jiraiya met the man when he was with the Sandaime Hokage once. The jōnin then asked him if he wanted to continue working on his elemental affinity, to which Naruto stated yes loudly. The sannin whistled impressively. Not many genin type of shinobi worked with their chakra nature at a young age. Jiraiya himself didn't learn his chakra affinity at a young age like that. After all, he was one of those late bloomers. Perhaps Naruto took after his father more than his mother.

Then he seen the boy use several shadow clones and his eyes widened. The **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **was a jōnin-level technique that many jōnin couldn't make more than three without feeling tired. Since when the kid had access to that technique? The boy made four, and attempted to utilize his chakra. Another shock came to him when he seen Naruto's clones place their hands from the ground and pick up pieces of the Earth itself.

Or attempted to anyway, as most of it fell to the ground. Naruto growled in frustration, but his clone continued to do the "dirty work". Jiraiya had to chuckle a little at the little funny he made. Still, tasteless pun aside, Jiraiya pondered in the trees above about this new discovery. Doton affinity? Wasn't Minato's affinity Katon?

_'Or was it fūton? Come to think of it wasn't Kushina's affinity wind and not Minato? Eh. Doesn't really matter.' _Jiraiya seen the boy use his clones to do the technique, meanwhile he and Ebisu continue training, and doing other things. Things like working on Naruto's taijutsu skills. It was intriguing, definitely.

He realized he should have left, but he found himself staying for another twenty minutes later, watching Naruto training with his sensei. Finally done with watching his godson, Jiraiya smiled wistfully, and left the training grounds, and back to civilization in Konohagakure. It was time to do so anyway, or the Hokage would tan his hide. He had to catch up with his godson. Perhaps even give him some help with his training, seeing he was using Doton ninjutsu.

Ah, but he would have to see, especially if Sarutobi-sensei had other plans for him. Jiraiya would figure it out. For now though, Naruto looked to be doing just fine right now. Yes, on the right path.

* * *

Naruto was finished for the day with his training. No success was made today with how many clones his teacher made him use. Ebisu also left relatively early today, so Naruto could not continue training in other things that did not involve ninjutsu. He wanted to actually spawn a thousand of clones, and have them all work on the earth release exercise, but he made a promise to his teacher, and – a part of him that got him sometimes in trouble – he refused to break that promise.

After hours of frustration, Naruto gave up, and decided to take a break from it all. Tomorrow would come anyway, and Naruto could spend hours attempting the technique again.

"Heh, I'm sure I'll get it down soon enough." Naruto grinned to himself, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head. Strolling inside the village's gates once again after being checked by the stationed chūnin there, he decided to continue wandering around, and go places-

-And by places, he meant Ramen Ichiraku to get a bite to eat. It was around lunch time for him. All the training had worked up a mean hungry in Naruto, and he would oblige fulfilling it. It took a few minutes, but he made it to Ichiraku, and immediately plopped down into a seat. The sound of his shuffling around as he entered the shop was enough to tip off the person behind the counter.

Ayame smiled at him jovially as the young boy entered the shop. "Naruto, our favorite customer! How's it going?"

"Swell." Naruto smiled back. "After some training, I thought some ramen would hit the spot right about now!"

The brown haired waitress giggled, leaning forward. "You would have been coming around this time, even if you weren't training."

The blond-haired boy guffawed at the older teenager's response. "Ah, Ayame-nē-chan. You know me so well. So, where's Teuchi-jiji?"

"Father's out taking care of some business outside the village. It's just me today."

"Aww, hopefully you ain't lonely, nē-chan. Manning one shop for the day without any help must be difficult." Naruto seen the girl waved her hands, shaking off his comment.

"Nah, it's good my dad is gone for the day. Everyone needs a break from the people they love. Besides, business is usually slow on Sunday afternoons anyway. I can handle it." Ayame chuckled, and straightened up, ready to take her younger friend's order. "Heh. So, what's it today, Naruto?"

"My classic miso, please!" The 13-year old pounded his fists on the counter excitedly. "Ramen, ramen!"

Ayame laughed, holding her hands up. "Okay, okay, Naruto. Settle down. One miso ramen… Starting, of course." She gave one last smile to the boy before disappearing back into the kitchen.

"She's a cutie, isn't she?" A voice rang from outside the shop. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the source of the voice.

A very tall man with white, spiky and long hair, a red haori, a green kimono, and green pants entered the restaurant. Red lines adorned his face, starting from his eyes, and finishing at his jawline. He wore a friendly smile on his face, and plopped down next down to Naruto.

Naruto gave him a neutral, analyzing look before shrugging. "I haven't noticed."

"No?" The man grinned at him. Naruto found himself not quite liking that grin. It looked vaguely... perverted. "She's a cutie little thing. Probably grow up to be quite the beauty."

Naruto again found himself shrugging, trying to shake off that uncomfortable feeling. It sounded like the man was a pervert alright. "She's not my type."

"Ha! Not really into girls that age, huh? Or do you, you know, swing _another _way?"

Naruto glared slightly at the man. "Ayame-nē-chan is like family to me. I don't like her like that! So shut your face, old man!"

The man guffawed. "Settle down, kid. I'm just kidding. Although, don't think I didn't catch you not answering my other question."

"What other question?"

The man shook his head, obviously amused. He didn't bother answering Naruto's question, to which the blond-haired Uzumaki frowned at. Naruto watched the man turn his attention to the kitchen, and yell out, "Waitress! I'd like what the brat here's having, please!"

"One miso ramen coming up!" Yelled back the girl from the kitchen.

Naruto harrumphed. "Stop bothering me, old guy."

The man snorted. "You know, I'm not some 'old guy', you know? Do you even know who I am, kid?"

"No, and why should I care?" The blond-haired boy folded his arms.

"Tsk. Typical kids these days don't know what generation proceeded before. I'm the Great One! I'm the excellent, sublime, and awesome hero of the Second Shinobi World War. I'm the gallant one himself, I am-"

"Gama Sennin no Jiraiya!" A gasp from Ayame came out. Ayame almost dropped the soup she was holding, ignoring the cry of protest from Naruto. The young woman, in the end, got the bowl of noodle soup to Naruto shakily. She placed Naruto's food on the counter, and immediately did a deep bow. "I-It's an honor, sir."

"Geez, Ayame-nē-chan! You almost spilled my ramen!" Naruto took his ramen bowl and hugged it to his chest protectively. "What did it do to you?!"

Jiraiya smirked at Ayame's blatant show of reverence towards him. "See? She's just a civilian and she knows more about my reputation than you, brat." The war hero snorted. "Kids these days..."

Naruto rolled his eyes. He placed his soup back down, thanked the waitress, and cracked open the chopsticks Ayame placed on the table with his bowl of soup. "So you're a war hero, huh? Big whoop." Naruto relished the man's face falling into a frown. "I couldn't care less."

Ayame gasped at Naruto's blatant disrespect. "N-Naruto, please! Apologize! This man is Jiraiya of the Sannin. The legendary three shinobi that are at the level of the Hokage himself, and powerful warriors with esteemed reputations!" She turned back to the older man and bowed again. "I apologize, Jiraiya-sama. Your food will be right on its way."

The man waved. "Take your time." The two males watched the female waitress return back into the kitchen area of the shop. Jiraiya then grinned over at Naruto cockily. "See? I'm an esteemed, powerful warrior, boy."

"And that impresses me… how?" Naruto grinned, digging into his soup. Getting a handful of some noodles with his sticks, and slurping them up in a mighty gulp, Naruto chuckled, and started talking in the back to his friend. "What impresses me more is how in the hell do you always make miso so good, nē-chan ? Some old coot doesn't faze me."

Jiraiya folded his arms and growled. "'Old coot?' Listen kid, I could kick your ass easily if I wanted to. In fact, I can show you now if you want."

Naruto snorted. "If Ayame-nē-chan said you're on the level of Sarutobi-jiji, fighting you would be stupid. You may be super strong, but you don't automatically get my respect and awe just because you're some great warrior of an old era. You want my respect? Get in line and earn it."

Jiraiya looked him over for a second, almost glaring at him, before guffawing, and slapping Naruto's back in a jolly manner. The boy immediately almost chocked on some food he was eating, and coughed loudly at the man's strength. Shit, this guy patted his back so hard, it almost hurt. "I like you, kid. You're not so easily impressed and know what you're talking about. You got some spunk. Still, it would do you some good if you respect your elders, you know? I'm Jiraiya. What's your name, boy?"

"N-Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto sputtered out, regaining some of his wits.

Jiraiya smiled. "Naruto… A respectable, gutsy name. Perhaps it could even be a legendary one, one day. Hey kid, you participating in the Chūnin Exams this year?"

"Yeah, I am." The orange clad genin nodded, wondering how the guy guessed that. "How did you know?"

The toad sage whistled. "Ooh, boy. Can't remember how long has it was since I became a chūnin. Good times. Ah, then again most of those good times were also pretty bad... War and all."

"Mmhmm..." Naruto hummed, barely veiling his disinterest. He did not want to hear some old timer wax on some of his old "glory days" stories. He was just here for the ramen.

But Jiraiya did wax indeed, for almost a half-hour, and while some stories were, admittedly, interesting, most were about how awesome the guy was. How arrogant was that?

Naruto immediately ignored the feeling of being a hypocrite, and readied himself to leave Ramen Ichiraku. As soon as he finished his soup, he told the man an excuse about needing to be somewhere else, muttered a "Thank you", and jetted out of there. Paid his bill to Ayame and left before he could get his ear talked off.

Unknown to him, Jiraiya's eyes followed him out. After a lingering look, and a small chuckle, Jiraiya finished the rest of his miso ramen, thanked the waitress, and left the shop as well. He knew where next he had to go.

* * *

Ebisu enjoyed the night air's pleasant wind, finishing up eating at his favorite little restaurant in town. Deciding not wanting to eat at home tonight, and treating himself to some delicious kamaboko and fried crab tonight, his stomach was very pleased. He was now off to home, to enjoy an hour of light reading, then sleeping for tomorrow, where he would continue his training of young Naruto Uzumaki.

He had to admit, the training was going smoother than he first thought it would be like when he agreed to this arrangement Kakashi-san set up. Much better. Although the boy had gotten on his nerves quite a bit, and tried his patience, Naruto was starting to come around in his training. Perhaps he would be able to learn some new ninjutsu over the course of the month. The boy did need something more offensive against Neji Hyūga. Ebisu had an idea on what to teach Naruto next, but it required him to master his earth chakra. He knew how the boy worked. Once determined, it seemed like Naruto would stop at nothing but to succeed in his task. That attitude could carry him places. Soon, Naruto would be ready to learn what Ebisu wanted to teach him.

Ebisu was so busy pondering, he didn't notice bumping into someone. Someone much taller than him, and someone familiar. In fact, someone quite famous. It wasn't soon until Ebisu was bowing deeply and apologizing profusely to who he rudely walked into. "Ah! Jiraiya-sama! Forgive me, milord! I hope I did not ruin anything on your person!"

Jiraiya himself would call Ebisu's apologizing "groveling on the floor". He could swear the bandana wearing shinobi was saying under his breath "I am not worth!" a couple of times too.

The older man scratched his head in confusion. "Uh, it's okay...?" Remembering why he approached the increasingly peculiar man, he raised his voice to get the bowing man's attention. "Hey, Ebisu-san, straighten up! I would like to have a word with you."

"Yes, sir. What do you need, Jiraiya-sama?" Ebisu quickly stood tall again, giving the older man his undivided attention.

Jiraiya folded his arms, already in business mode. "I see you're teaching Naruto Uzumaki. What? Is this a short affair? Coulda sworn Kakashi had that little squirt as a student."

Ebisu nodded. "Ah, yes. Kakashi-kun could not teach Naruto in the month, due to needing to tend to Sasuke Uchiha for the month. Orochimaru, unfortunately, attacked him in the Chūnin Exams..."

Jiraiya hummed in comprehension. He remembered being briefed on that by Sarutobi-sensei. That damn Orochimaru got his hands on the Uchiha and gave that boy the dreaded _Ten no Juin_, his personally designed juinjutsu that he branded on his victims. Or people of interest. Even to this day, that damn technique still eluded him to no end. Anko Mitarashi also had the same thing too. Poor girl had been branded with the damn seal for years now.

Jiraiya grunted, ceasing his pondering of Orochimaru's juinjutsu. "I see. Well, it seems like you are doing a good job so far. I seen a little glimpse of what you guys were doing earlier today when you two were training. I got to say, I'm impressed at the boy's progress. Good job."

Ebisu blushed in embarrassment. "Thank you, milord. I am humbled by your praise. Naruto-kun is a good student, as well as one of the most driven ones I have taught in my years of teaching. It has only been two weeks, and Naruto-kun has gotten a good amount of progress with his Earth Release chakra training."

"Yeah. I respect that. Gotta thank the Nidame Hokage for coming up with that **Kage Bunshin**, man. Lord know how long it took regular joes like me or you to get the steps down for our elemental affinities." Jiraiya chuckled wistfully. "You know, Sarutobi-sensei wanted me to step in and train Naruto for the month originally, but I got... Kind of set back a day or two and didn't return to the village in time." Jiraiya's guffaw sounded vaguely perverted. "'Habits' and all. My affinity for hot springs have bitten me on my ass quite a few times in my life."

Ebisu nodded, softly stating, "I understand." Not that he would admit it out loud, but he did share a bit of Jiraiya's "habits"... and affinity for hot springs. "So, do you want me to back off and you teach him from here on out?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Nah. Me and Sarutobi-sensei already agreed that you are already doing a good job with him. Truth be told, I didn't have much of a plan to teach him. I might have had him sign the toad summoning contract, helped him with his chakra control, or something else, but nothing like what you're doing with him. So, I leave the task of physically training the boy to you. I'll come back to him a little after the exams."

Pausing for a second, Jiraiya reached into a pocket in his red haori, and pulled out a white scroll. "No, instead, I got some few things on a scroll I think he would like to learn. Since he's an earth-type user, I thought it would be good to learn some jutsu in that elemental branch. That way, I made my contribution for the month. Just give to him once he's done with learning how to use his elemental chakra. These techniques are good for him too – none of these are low-level." Then, he tossed the scroll over to Ebisu. "Catch."

The bandana wearing tokebetsu jōnin caught the scroll easily, and opened it to scan the techniques inside. There were a total of six techniques that were on the scroll. Some of these techniques Ebisu recognized, but most were foreign to him. Nevertheless, they were well-detailed, and nothing Ebisu himself couldn't help Naruto with. Interestingly enough, there were some mid to high-level techniques inside. Nothing too insane, although one of the techniques Jiraiya had written inside the scroll had been an A-rank. It wasn't an offensive technique – more defensive in nature. Nevertheless, it would go for a good cause. It didn't quite matter what technique Naruto would attempt; with Naruto's monstrous chakra level, it would all work out just fine. It would fit right up the boy's alley.

Ebisu nodded, thinking it was a good idea, and pocketed the scroll in a free area on his person. "This is a splendid idea. I will let Naruto know when the time is right."

Jiraiya beamed, clapping his hands in contentment. "Thanks, kid. I appreciate it. Oh, and tell that Naruto brat Gama Sennin no Jiraiya said, 'Good luck in the exams.' I'll be around and in touch. Enjoy your night, sir."

"You too, Jiraiya-sama." Ebisu watched the legendary ninja take his leave with a smile. Patting the scroll in a side pocket, he grinned. "Yes, I think Naruto-kun will enjoy these techniques at his disposal."

* * *

Two days later, and Naruto finally got down the basics of molding Earth Release chakra, scooping up dirt with his chakra and not spilling a bit. Naruto whooped out a roar of triumph, saying he was ready for anything now. A happy high he was riding on, until Ebisu popped his bubble and said he was now ready to learn "Part II" of his earth chakra training. "You are still quite too far from learning any sort of ninjutsu, Naruto-kun."

"Come on, man. I'm not finished yet?" Naruto groaned, dropping the dirt.

"No, Naruto-kun." Ebisu grunted out. "You are not _finished_ yet. You can pick up dirt now with your chakra, without spilling it. Well done." Naruto had the decency to look embarrassed, his face heating up. It was obvious Ebisu was getting annoyed at him; the sarcastic congratulations at Naruto's achievement being a clear indication of such. "Now, you must shape the dirt with your chakra. First, we will start off easy, and make a scalene triangle – as in a triangle with three uneven sides." Ebisu explained before Naruto gotten anymore confused with the term "scalene".

Naruto quickly scowled in distaste. "What is _this_? 'Pottery-making class?' Since when are we making damn ceramics here? Why do I have to learn how to make shapes with dirt now?"

Ebisu stayed silent, staring at Naruto intensely through his shades. Instead of saying anything to the boy, Ebisu placed his hand on the ground, while Naruto watched in interest. Naruto watched as his teacher stood back up, after reaching down and grabbing a clump of dirt with one hand. Then Naruto watched in amazement as Ebisu morphed the dirt, effortless, into specific shapes. First the dirt morphed into a square, then a perfect orb-shaped object, and then things gotten more complex. More angles were added in, and edges gotten sharper, until Naruto seen Ebisu morph the dirt into a perfectly shaped kunai, reminiscent of a real-life kunai knife. Then, the texture of the earth in Ebisu's hand changed. Gone was the lumpy soft dirt in Ebisu's right hand, and replacing it was smooth, hardened brown stone.

Ebisu then chose to spoke. "_This_ is what I'm talking about when I say shape the dirt. This is what happens when you master your earth chakra. Earth Release is about manipulating the Earth under you, turning it to anything you want it to be. Get a bunch of earthen material, and you can make a sky-high wall, or a barrier. Gather small material like this, and you can create makeshift weapons in the middle of a battle. Earth Release is very versatile and not to be trifled with, Naruto-kun, or made a _joke_ of."

"Whoa..." Naruto looked in awe at the kunai in Ebisu's hand. "I'm learning how to do _that_?"

"Yes." Ebisu smiled thinly. "First, you'll learn how to gather the material, then shape it, then change its texture from hard like this," He flexed the kunai-shaped stone in his hands, "To soft like this." Another flex, and the stone had become dirt, crumbling away from Ebisu's hand. "And vice-versa."

"_Kickass_, Sensei. Wish you told me that from the beginning." Naruto grinned, rubbing his hands like he was about to receive a present. "Can't wait to learn that shit."

"Hmph. That's still far out your way. Now, do what I tell you, and stop acting like a foolish child."

Naruto growled, immediately angered by the man. "I'm not acting like a child!"

The jōnin shook his head, preparing another lecture. "You're wasting your own time. If you want to become a chūnin, you need to stop blurting out things without thinking first. If you want to beat Neji, you need to learn how to accept your limits. I need you to stop questioning so much what whether or not we're doing is pointless. This exercise is _vital _to learn how to wield your earth chakra correctly. Without it, you will not get far in the ninjutsu department. I have put up with a lot of your antics before, Naruto, and I'm asking you cease it for the time being. You want me to teach you how to become a chūnin? Well, let me teach."

Naruto fell silent as he listened to the man, who folded his arms and looked at Naruto with a frown. "I will not help someone who likes to waste precious time making jokes. We have as little as three more weeks before the month is up, and you're still in the stage of learning how to properly use your earth chakra. Time to stop acting like a child, Naruto, and be serious for once."

Naruto frowned at Ebisu scolding, wanting to yell at the man in annoyance. He felt insulted, hurt. He was trying his damned best here to become stronger, and the guy thought he was joking around? Naruto had a few things to say to the guy... But ultimately, shaking his head, he stopped himself.

No, the man was right on this one. Naruto made jokes because he was honestly frustrated with not learning fast enough. He was stressed, alright. What a stupid move to declare he would beat Neji in a month, especially when the guy was one of the best genin of this generation. He just didn't want to lose. A lot of shit was riding on this. Not just his pride and honor, but Hinata's too. She didn't deserve that fucking beating her cousin gave her. She was a nice girl, and he beat her close to _death _just because he was feeling some shitty way about his family's doing. That wasn't right. Someone needed to knock some fucking sense into that guy, and Naruto swore he would be the one to do it.

Plus, it was something Naruto had to do himself, to prove himself. He wanted everyone to know that he wasn't the same failure back in the Academy, that he gotten better, and for fuck's sake, he wanted some damn respect!

But... It ran even deeper than that. Even now, even if his desire to become Hokage had changed a little, his other desires were still the same. He wanted to be acknowledged, to be noticed, and to be treated like an equal. He wanted to be treated like a real shinobi, not an outcast anymore. He was done with that crap. He wanted to be someone people could rely on. He wanted to be a leader. Of course, in this situation, he could admit he wasn't acting like one. He could see it now.

How can you lead, when you were whining about shit not going your way every single time? Ebisu-sensei was right, he was acting like a child. It was selfish, and it was wasting time. Ebisu was right again; time was going, and he hadn't quite finished up the basics of this training yet. He had to shape up – like this lump of dirt he was supposed to shape into a triangle. He had to shape up, and fast.

Nodding silently at the man, and slumping his head in defeat, Naruto decided it was time to stop joking around and to get to work. Sighing, he muttered a small "I'm sorry" at his teacher, before placing his hand on the ground, and summoning his chakra to his palm. Dirt in his right hand, Naruto grunted, and looked at the dirt in annoyance. Though he was more annoyed at himself, then anything.

_'...The sooner I'm done doing this dull shit, the quicker I can be doing some cool shit like Ebisu-sensei. I just got to be more patient.'_

Then he concentrated his chakra and got very lackluster results. As soon as he summoned more chakra to move the dirt in any sort of way, the dirt rejected his manipulation, and a side of it fell back onto the ground, and then another side, until the dirt that once was in Naruto's hands was back where it first came from. Naruto wanted to yell in frustration at the stupid dirt for not doing what he wanted it to do but he curbed his, admittedly childish, anger, and instead tried concentrating again.

When the same thing happened, Naruto's whole body shook, ready to explode. "Can I use my shadow clones for this one, Sensei?"

"What's the limit again?"

Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Three, Sensei," Naruto droned.

Ebisu nodded back – his face almost haughty – in satisfaction. "Very good. You may do so."

Naruto did a very fake smile back at his temporary teacher before summoning three shadow clones by a single hand seal. The clones silently moved to Naruto's sides – one clone on his right and one on his left. They both then placed a palm on the ground, and started working the triangle exercise with him; dirt clumping in all three of their hands.

Hours passed by, and Naruto felt no new progress with the technique. His clones had the same bad luck, and all three of the boys looked sourly at the clumps of dirt they were trying to shape. It was almost time for break time – twelve o'clock in the afternoon. Naruto was close to stopping until he looked at the progress his dopplegängers were making.

The Naruto clone on the left currently had successfully had one side up at an angle – the left side – while trying to work at the other two sides of the triangle Sensei told them to make. The clone on Naruto's right side had successfully shaped the side on the right, and was trying to keep it up while making the other sides connect.

An idea then popped in Naruto's head. "Hey, guys, come over to me for a second. Drop your dirt."

Both of the clones looked over at the original Naruto, then among themselves, before shrugging nonchalantly and stopped their chakra control exercise. Dirt dropping from their hands, they walked over to the original Naruto, ready to receive their task. "Whatcha you need, Prime?"

"I need you two to shape one side of the triangle I'm making. I'll concentrate on the last side. Ready?" The two nodded, and placed their hands near the dirt Naruto held in his palm. Invisibly feeding it chakra, the dirt started to shift in Naruto's hands, and Naruto watched in excitement as the uneven triangle was made. "Yes! We did it!"

"Hmm?" A voice came from Naruto's far right, and near a tree. "You finished?" Curious, Ebisu took his eyes off an orange-colored book. Catching up on a good read from a distance, as Naruto trained for a few hours, Ebisu failed to see the new progress Naruto had made in his Earth Release training, only hearing the boy cheer loudly from his spot on the training grounds. He pocketed his book (being seen with it would bring up much embarrassing questions from Naruto), placing it in his back pocket, and walked over to his student. "You did what, Naruto-kun?"

"Look, look Sensei! Me and my clones finally did it, dattebayo! We shaped it, together!"

Ebisu blinked owlishly. "Together?"

"Yeah, yeah! I told my clones to shape each side of the dirt, to make a triangle and they did it! Now we're ready for the next part, right?"

"Show me how you did it."

"Heh." Naruto smirked, and dropped the dirt from his hands. Then he grabbed a clump of dirt with his chakra, and told his clones to take a side and shape the dirt into the triangle again. Finally, after a few more seconds, they produced an uneven triangle once again. "See? We did it, dattebayo!"

Ebisu looked over the triangle for a second, and then back to the happy three clones, before nodding. "Very good. Start over now."

Naruto almost fell down in shock. His clones did, and comically enough, dispelled when making contact with the hard ground. "Wait, what, why?!"

"You did not do the exercise correctly. Start over again, Naruto-kun." Ebisu explained nonchantantly.

"B-But, whyyyyyyyy?" Naruto whined miserably. "I thought I was supposed to make a triangle, Sensei."

"Yes, Naruto-kun, _you _are supposed to make a triangle, not together with your clones." Ebisu pushed up his shades on the bridge of his nose with his middle finger. "You are learning how to shape the earth by yourself, not with your clones. That defeats the purpose of this exercise. You have to learn it by yourself. Over-reliance on your shadow clones will hamper you instead of help you. The time it takes for them to shape the chakra for you will be enough time for most enemies to get in your defenses and attack you, even kill you."

"B-B-But-" Naruto stammered out.

Ebisu shook his head at the blond boy. "No, there will be no shortcuts in this. You are using your clones to help you find a way to complete the exercise, not do it for you. You still have much to do."

"Ughhhhh..." Naruto groaned, running his clean hands – Naruto figured out how to keep the dirt off his hands in Part I of this stupid training – through his hair, and trying desperate to not tear it out of its roots. "Fine..."

"And one more thing... We're stopping for now." Ebisu tapped a wristwatch. "It's almost 12."

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Naruto groaned again, this time much louder. "Could have came at a better time, huh?"

Ebisu smiled a little at Naruto, finding his frustration slightly amusing. "Do not feel too bad. After all, it is lunch. I will buy you some food."

"Hmph. I could do with grub right about now." Naruto rubbed his belly forlornly. All this training stress did work up a hell of an appetite. Sighing, he said, "Oh well. At least I can get some miso ramen in my system."

"...I did not say I was going to buy you ramen, though."

"Ehhhhhhh?! B-But-"

The man grinned, bringing out two white papers out of his pants pocket. "After all, I do have two coupons for that restaurant that serve a great crab dish..."

"UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto groaned out for the last time. Yep, screw today indeed.

* * *

_**End.**_

**Translation List:**

Gama Sennin no Jiraya – Jiraiya, the Toad Sage**  
**Ten no Juin – Cursed Seal Of Heaven

**A/N:** Guess I lied. No sort of pondering about Kakashi's advice happened in this chapter at all, but don't worry, we'll get to that stuff next chapter. I would have included it but eh. This chapter is already 7,000 words plus – it was getting a little too long for my taste.

So, Jiraiya appeared. Now that he's not busy training Naruto for the month, he's free-ish for anything, huh? Hmm... I quite liked how I wrote him in, and how he gave Ebisu some help with Naruto's training. That way he's not completely just doing nothing, eh? I am quite enjoying how I am writing Ebisu, by the way. I figured the man to be a no-nonsense type of character, and I quite like the interaction him and Naruto have so far. Also, I now have a clearer path of what I am going to have Ebisu teach Naruto. Think I gave a small hint at it too.

Overall, I like how the chapter came out. I'm starting to like the direction I'm putting the story in.

Thanks for the people who's reviewed it. I appreciate the input, and for those worried that Naruto will not learn the Rasenshuriken now I turned his element into Earth, I say don't worry too much about it. Just because Naruto's element is Earth, doesn't mean he won't learn that technique some time down the line. That's all I'm saying for now. Now no more worries about it.

See you guys in the next chapter of this story. Later!


	4. IV

_A __Nugget __Of Advice, Chapter 4_

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_. Please support the official release.

**A/N: **This is going to be a large chapter, and we're not in the exams _quite_ yet.

Just a forewarning.

* * *

After the lunch break, Naruto found a way to do the triangle, albeit with both hands. One of his clones decided to do it another way, and when it popped, Naruto got it down as well. Shaping all angles in the most uneven triangle made out of pure dirt, Naruto completed the chakra control exercise, which he was honestly proud of. His teacher, Ebisu, congratulated him on a job well done, but said it wasn't enough for now. He decided to tell Naruto to try it again, this time with one hand, to which annoyed Naruto but he didn't voice his opinion. Instead he let it go, and focused on the task again. That earned him an earnest pat on his shoulder, as Ebisu-sensei watched his progress at a distance.

Much to Naruto's credit, he found the solution the task Ebisu gave him with making the triangle one-handed a day and a half. It was hard definitely, but he managed to shape his chakra in three angles. The advice his teacher gave him was somewhat helpful.

Naruto, admittedly, had a problem when it came to thinking too hard on the exercise. Instead of simply trying it, he was too busy thinking he had to do it fast. Ebisu-sensei asked him to simply imagine a triangle being made over and over; he also asked Naruto to stop thinking about how fast to shape the chakra as well. _"This is simply you learning how to shape it right now. If anything, we shall work on the __speed another time. Just do it, not think about how _fast _how to do it."_

After a while after the advice, he gotten it down, and he was relieved.

Then Sensei decided to make it more specific, and asked him to make a triangle with all equal angles. It took another few minutes to get it down, but he got it, and he thought honestly he was ready to move on to something else much more interesting. Ebisu agreed, and just when Naruto thought he was out of the "shape making department", Ebisu grabbed some dirt of his own.

"Here's your next task." Ebisu concentrated on his right palm, and shaped the dirt instantaneously into a rectangle. "You're going to shape it this time to a rectangle. It shouldn't be hard now that you know how to make angles."

Naruto muffled any sort of screams of protest, and nodded jadedly, working on the task. Interestingly enough, like Sensei said, Naruto gotten it, relatively fast. In a few minutes, using the same strategy as before, he gotten the square exercise down quickly. "Perfect," Ebisu smiled. "You are starting to get it."

"Is there more to this than making basic shapes?" Naruto asked, trying not to voice his frustration.

Ebisu could sense it however. "Patience, Naruto-kun. There is much more to this technique than shaping, like making it larger or smaller, but that's a task for another day. Preferably after the Chūnin Exams. The techniques I will show you does not have to do with size changing. Now, cut the link between the chakra shaping the dirt, and return it back to how had it before when you first gathered the dirt."

Naruto paused, and concentrated again, this time – slowly – bringing the dirt down and making it shapeless. "What's next?"

"Make a perfect square. It's like making the perfect triangle. Work slowly, and imagine it."

Naruto nodded, and closed his eyes in thought, focusing on the imagine of a triangle, finding his chakra working for himself, and creating the shape in another minute. Ebisu smiled again, "Excellent. Alright. We're going to finally do some much more complicated. I warn you, this will take a little longer. Instead of making a triangle or square, or any shape with angles, I want you to make a perfect circle."

"Shouldn't be that bad."

Ebisu shrugged. A lopsided grin appeared on his face. "I warned you."

And his teacher did. For a little while, it truly did stump him. Unlike the specific angles the triangle and square asked for, a circle was much different, lacking any sort of thing like that. At first, Naruto unconsciously tried shaping in one direction, but it got something akin to a normal straight angle, and failed.

He wanted to ask his teacher for advice, but he stopped and decided to not rely on the man and figure it out himself. Just like the triangle and square, he tried to think what made a circle in his head, letting the dirt sit in his hand. A circle lacked angles and lines, unlike a triangle or square. So in order to do it, he couldn't make it straight.

_'I have to turn my chakra...' _It was the conclusion he came to. Eyes still closed, and making sure to focus hard on this one, he raised one palm over the dirt, fed the chakra, and started circling his hand over the dirt, moving slowly.

Anchoring his chakra in his other hand where he held the dirt in to keep it all together, he decided to use his left hand to turn the dirt. He wasn't adept at using it in the same palm he held the dirt in, so he tried with two hands. His chakra responded, and moved as he circled his hand over the soil. In the middle of it all, he opened his eyes, and saw his work, and smiled a little at it. Unfortunately, even as slowly as he went, he ended up not making the circle shape perfect, and the ending part of chakra-saturated dirt didn't connect with the beginning part, creating some sort of weird, incomplete shape.

Still Ebisu looked pleased, beaming in his direction and clapping his hands. "Very good. Yes, you are starting to get it. Yes, yes. Very good indeed."

Naruto looked vaguely amused, smiling slightly. "Even if I failed?"

Ebisu waved at him offhandedly. "Minor details. This is an admittedly difficult task I'm giving you. You know the basics of utilizing your earth chakra, and the basics of Shape Transformation. You now know how to shape your earth chakra certain ways, and this now will help you learn some ninjutsu. You're quite not on the level yet to form weaponry out of your element yet, but you're getting there."

"So, wait, are you going to show me how to change the properties of dirt to stone?"

"Yes." Ebisu nodded. "It's simply, really. To harden it to stone, after shaping whatever you want, simply add more chakra and compress it tightly together. If you want to turn stone to soil, you use your chakra, spread it around to loosen the stone, and turn it into soil. I suppose it's easier for you to see it, instead of me telling you."

Naruto nodded at that. "Yes, please." Explanations only went so far with him; the blond didn't learn like that. He had to see it performed, and actually do it in order to learn it. Theory was never his strong suit.

Ebisu grunted in affirmation, gathered dirt into his hand, and started shaping the soil into a round orb. Then he compacted the earthen material and created a hard rock. Then, he messed with the object in his hands again, and it turned softer and softer until it became a round dirt ball again. "To compress your chakra, imagine taking all of your chakra, and squeeze it together, like you're squeezing something tightly. Try it. You can make any shape you please."

Naruto did, dropping the weird shape in his hand, turning the dirt lumpy again, and made a shape. The shape he chose for his task was a triangle, as he edged the soil with his chakra, and created the triangle. Then, he attempted to pack his chakra tightly together, but it was easier said than done and found his chakra not exactly responding to his wishes.

After another half-hour, it was around 4, and Ebisu told him to stop, and take a short 15-minute break. Naruto sighed, and went towards a spot near his teacher under a shade tree, wiping some sweat off his brow. Naruto brought forth a green canteen of water. The water was kind of warm, but Naruto drank up the liquid all the same, and felt some of annoyance for today wash away. A bit more sweeping of the sweat off his forehead, and the blond-haired Uzumaki felt a little better.

Naruto found no newer progress, to which irritated him. However, he promised himself to not complain so much about it, and just kept it to himself. Ebisu patted him on the shoulder. "You are doing an excellent job so far, Naruto. You have gotten down quite a bit in these last few days. I am sure you will learn this by the end of this month of training."

Naruto appreciated the encouraging words, smiling at the jōnin standing at his side under the tree. "Thanks, Sensei. Just a little frustrated, is all. I'll definitely get this down."

"Very good. Alright, the next thing we will do is do something you will find a little more interesting. Although it's not ninjutsu." Naruto slightly deflated. The thought of getting to something other than making shapes with dirt was exciting, and he first thought it would be something practical, like ninjutsu. It seems like he was wrong. "We shall get to it soon. Instead of ninjutsu, I will teach you how to actively use your element in close quarters combat, increasing your strength temporarily."

"Eh? What?" The boy questioned, much interested again in what his teacher would be teaching him next.

"Chakra Flow."

* * *

"This is the basics of Chakra Flow. Basically, this is a type of exercise that requires a substantial amount of chakra control. You are flowing chakra through certain objects like weaponry or ordinary objects."

Ebisu grabbed out a kunai out his back pouch, and channeled chakra through the metal. An aura cloaked the metal in a visible blue. "Chakra flow – non-elemental – can last in objects for a very long time. However, it can get more complicated when adding an element into it due to the volatility of all elements." Ebisu then paused again, before Naruto watched the aura's blue turn red and flaming.

Naruto whistled, finding the process fascinating. "That's so cool, dattebayo!"

Ebisu nodded. "However, remember, this is all about controlling your chakra. If you cannot control it, you can end up doing damage to yourself, and that is never a good thing. An element as volatile as fire can end up you getting burned if you do something wrong. Each element can do some sort of harm to you or the object you are flowing chakra inside of."

"So what does Earth do if you have no control?"

"I will show you." Ebisu stopped his fire chakra flow technique, and returned his hands to a normal state. Grabbing the kunai with his left hand, Ebisu activated his chakra again, converted it to Earth Release chakra, and the kunai had an aura of particles of earth surrounding the metal blade. "This is the correct version of the technique – the right amount of chakra flowing through an object. However, the wrong amount..." Ebisu then did something to make the metal blade darken, and darken until it almost became black, and Ebisu looked a little strained, like it became much harder to keep the weapon up in one hand. "The item has become significantly heavier and much more denser, much like a rock. For a weapon, unless this is your intention, never do what I have done." Ebisu then flexed his hand, and dropped the flow of chakra, turning the weapon back.

Naruto watched it, and saw big dents now in the metal, dents that were not there before. "What happened?"

"Too much earth chakra warped the metal into this state. The wrong amount of chakra will break the weapon and make it useless. Some weapons are more suited to channel this chakra, admittedly, but they too will strain under the force of your chakra if you use too much."

"And too little won't wield the results you want, right?"

"Too little, and the chakra won't stand for a few seconds before dissipating." Ebisu responded, dropping the useless kunai in his hand to the ground. "Thus, you must find enough to place in the item. Naturally, the size matters in this case. Small item requires a small amount chakra, and a large item demands a large amount of chakra."

"All of this is about chakra control, eh?"

"Of course. You will find many of these exercises even _increase _your control. All this is to make you feel your chakra better. Have you not felt like it was easier to mold your chakra these days for any technique outside this exercises? Take a second, and use a ninjutsu now. Use a **Kawarimi **on this kunai I have on the floor." Ebisu cleared the way so Naruto could have plenty of space to perform the technique Ebisu asked him to use.

Naruto stared at his item intensely, and thought back to the amount of chakra he usually used to perform the **Kawarimi**. Clapping his hands, Naruto generated that chakra in his body, and then started contorting his fingers into hand seals shape. Tiger to boar, then boar to ox, then ox to dog, and finally finishing off with snake, Naruto succeed in using the technique, and shifted places with the kunai.

The kunai bounced for a second before dropping down uselessly, and Naruto founded he had used quite a bit of his chakra. It wasn't the most huge amount, but he _felt _it. Days of working with the smallest amount of chakra he could use made him more sensitive to it. "How did it feel?" Ebisu asked the teenage.

"It... I felt like I used a _lot _of chakra than I intended to."

Ebisu nodded, as he was confirming something. "Alright. Now, I want you to try it again. This time, use the most _minuscule _amount of chakra you can muster on it."

Naruto nodded, again looking over to the discarded kunai, and generated his chakra again with a soundless clap, before performing the necessary seals again. He tried his best to generated the absolute smallest amount of chakra he possibly could, and performed the **Kawarimi no Jutsu **again. He shifted places with the kunai, which dropped down to the ground in its original place, where Ebisu dropped it two minutes ago.

This time, his chakra felt like it hadn't depleted at all. Almost like it was a small, not easily noticeable tug of his chakra. It was many times weaker than what he used regularly when performing the **Kawarimi **on objects, people, or his clones. Yet, he had done it. It almost felt amazing, like he was waking up for the first time, or he learned something crucial in his life.

He was starting to understand why these damnable chakra control exercises held merit. The more chakra he could use in battle or in a fight at his disposal, the better it was. No more wasting so much chakra using techniques. That was why the **Kage Bunshin **was so good for him. Instead of worrying chakra control, the clone technique automatic splitting of his chakra evenly helped him save chakra. While Kakashi-sensei had already said to him that his reserve of chakra was massive, even larger than the Sandaime Hokage himself. However, that didn't mean it was infinite, and Naruto had felt his chakra amount get quite low before. Not like he's ever been in a fight when he had to worry about that, but it still took quite a few days for him to retain back that lost portion of his chakra again.

It felt amazing.

Ebisu smiled, watching Naruto's eyes widen from his space across the training grounds. "Noticed something interesting?"

"I... That didn't feel like it cost so much anymore."

"Yes. Your control of your chakra has become much better. You now know how to not only shape and make your chakra move in ways you want it to move, you also know how to much chakra to use in some of your techniques. I believe you can use even _less _chakra than what you used, due to how huge your chakra amount is, and how large your chakra pools are."

Thus, Naruto figured, he was perfect for using the art of ninjutsu, which made Naruto absolutely giddy. He got this all down in a few weeks. In a _few _weeks! Who knows what he could do now? The possibilities were endless. "This is awesome, Sensei. I feel great. I'm ready for anything you throw at me. I can do it!"

"I have little doubt whatever task I give you you will not try your hardest in." Naruto's enthusiasm rubbed off on Ebisu a large amount. "We will do the chakra flow exercise. I shall give you a bit of kunai and shuriken to experiment on. Originally, this was my final exercise for you, but I thought of something much more difficult for you when it comes to making shapes. So, after this, more shaping exercises, and practicing compressing and expanding your chakra, we shall finally get to ninjutsu."

"Right!" Naruto nodded, accepting the three kunai Ebisu gave him. Putting down two of the kunai, Naruto then summoned three shadow clones, without hand seals – a new crowning achievement Naruto was proud of recently discovering. In doing this, the one kunai in Naruto's hand became three for three blond boys to work on, making a total of five. The awesome effect of the **Kage Bunshin **was whatever the user had on their person was whatever the clones had as well. More tools could be made, and the perfect thing was, each of the clones had their own weaponry to work with.

Naruto grinned in excitement. There was no stopping him when he was charged like this. He was definitely going to kick ass in the Chūnin Exams.

* * *

Naruto laid down, his body aching, and his muscles weak. His arms were sore, and he felt like he ran a triathlon with his legs. Tomorrow was resting day for him, so that would be good for him. A day to rest his aching muscles. So tomorrow, he would be doing something not pertaining to training. He had made quite a good bit of progress in only two weeks, it was all thanks to Ebisu-sensei.

After several days of the man actually devoting his time to teach him, Naruto had to admit he was starting to warm up to Ebisu. Someone who he lumped up to be just like everyone else: people who disliked him just because of his "bad circumstance", The title "Sensei" for Ebisu was said less mockingly, and more respectfully as he learned from Ebisu. Now, it even wasn't that annoying taking orders from him.

The man always was there to teach him, and help him with a technique Naruto had trouble with. Even if Ebisu was only here by Kakashi-sensei's instruction, the man had brought him up to speed about a lot of things. He even taught Naruto more than he ever learned from Kakashi-sensei!

It help also that Ebisu taught him something as cool and useful as his elemental affinity. At first, Naruto wasn't as stellar to hear that his element was Earth. He was half-expecting either Fire Release or Lightning Release to be his affinity. Instead, Earth Release was his affinity. It wasn't anything he was expecting. When he was first mastering how to use earth chakra, he kept thinking one thing – what did Earth Release techniques have to offer in terms of strength and usefulness?

The answer: a lot.

Earth Release was by nature an equally offensive nature as it was defensive. According to his teacher Ebisu, Earth Release techniques could break the strongest of rock, and also form a powerful shield able to withstand the strongest of elemental and non-elemental techniques. Ergo, it was just as strong as it was durable, and Naruto could get behind that. Naruto liked versatility quite a bit, which is why the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **was his favorite – it was just tailored for him. He could make many of clones, and not even break a sweat. Now, he was learning from Ebisu, and that little **Kawarimi **exercise, he was finally getting why it was better to conserve chakra.

His chakra was huge. Sensei stated his chakra pools were extremely larger than his, and of anyone in this entire village. Naruto had chalked that up before as a sign to just simply being able to spam his shadow clones for his heart's content, but it was more than that. Because of his large pools of chakra, he could learn a ton of techniques and utilize them for a long time. Ninjutsu, therefore, was his forte, and he – like how he was doing with the **Kage Bunshin **now, could, and would, abuse the _shit _out of it.

Naruto learned a jōnin-level ninjutsu easily before, so what stopped him from picking up more? Not a damn thing. Ebisu-sensei looked ready to teach him ninjutsu any day now. Perhaps when he got down the true basics of chakra flow? It didn't really seem all that hard; all this time, his teacher was getting Naruto to work diligently on his chakra control, so he wouldn't be wasting a shit-load of chakra every time he called upon chakra for a technique, so chakra flow wouldn't take that long to learn.

Naruto couldn't help it. He was super giddy. Neji was getting his ass kicked when Naruto sees him in battle, and that ass-kicking extended to any potential opponent in the exams. Count on it.

But, that wasn't the real reason why the blond boy was having trouble sleeping. No, another crucial thing – even bigger than the pleasure of knowing the key to kicking Neji's ass – was keeping him awake, thinking about it.

Kakashi-sensei's question was again playing in his head. Every few days, he would go to sleep thinking about it, especially on restless nights like this. "_What is the point of these exams, Naruto? Think about it..."_

He tried to think of the reason to himself, in the days he wasn't trying or in his relaxation time. So far, he hadn't figured it out. Granted, he was busy with other things in his time, and the only time he could think about it was either on days off or when he was restless at night. Since he usually slept like a rock after training, that hadn't been many times when he was restless.

So, what was the point of these exams? To become chūnin, right? That was the namesake of the exams.

But, was there a secret thing beyond it? How could you become a chūnin if you didn't have a sizable amount of techniques at your disposal? How could you be a chūnin if you didn't have advanced techniques? At first, that's what Naruto thought that all you had to have. Just beat everyone in your way, and you would be able to become a chūnin, but now that he thought more deeply about it, that didn't make sense.

So let's say he beat everyone in the tournament, did that mean him, and maybe the runner-up of the exams would become a chūnin? That made little-to-no sense. It was strange to him to think of it in terms of math, but it helped quite a bit with the mystery. Thinking of it mathematically, if that statement above was true – about only the winner of the tournament and the runner-up were able to become chūnin, and the tournament only took place twice a year, that meant only four genin-ranked ninja in the entire village were able to gain a chūnin promotion. That didn't make sense. If that was the case, then the village's ninja force would be pathetically small, and Naruto knew for a _fact _that that was not the case.

Konohagakure was known for its extremely huge population, a population that eclipsed all of villages on the continent, to be exact. Konohagakure had a large bulk of capable genin, chūnin, and jōnin. Naruto couldn't even count how many new faces he seen around the village. The village itself stretched out for miles. It was huge, even to thirteen-year old Naruto Uzumaki. So how could _four _people of the village be chosen to become chūnin of the village? It made no sense at all.

So it definitely had to be more than just having the power to kick everyone's butt in the exams.

He thought back to what Ebisu-sensei said a time two weeks ago as a guideline. "_Just because you have the fighting skills of a chūnin, doesn't mean you actually deserve becoming a chūnin. Everybody has the potential to become a chūnin in the exams, but that doesn't mean they all can become one. The exams is much more than fighting. In order to become a chūnin, you must act like one, and think like one. Thus, you must know what it is to be chūnin. Sometimes, there's more than one way than surviving a fight."_

So, you could be chūnin-level in terms of strength and power... yet, that didn't mean you deserved to be one, right? Power didn't mean anything if you weren't responsible with it, he learned a while ago. In order to become chūnin, you had to act like one. Think like one. Then, you can become one. So strength and techniques meant nothing if he couldn't think like one. He could try the exams many times if he wanted, but if he couldn't think like one, then he wouldn't be promoted to a chūnin.

But how did you think like one?

Naruto didn't have the slightest clue, and seeing how several of the shinobi he knew, who knew about Kakashi-sensei's question was very privy about the information. They were very stingy with the knowledge.

No, "stingy" wasn't the right word. They just didn't want to give him the answer. They wanted him to figure it out himself but he could not, so he had to find someone else who could and was _willing _to give him that information he needed. They wanted him to think like a chūnin. Since he lacked the knowledge, he should seek it out, right? Find the knowledge himself, instead of just asking people who didn't want to exactly give him the information. However, it had to be from a source or _someone_ who didn't have a clue of the question Kakashi asked, like the Hokage and Ebisu.

With only one person in mind, Naruto smiled, figuring it out what to do. _'Time to see Iruka-sensei again.'_

* * *

_**The Next Day...**_  
_**  
**_It was evening time, and the skies orange and purple was reflecting on such. It had been such a long day, a long, grueling day of one headache that just would not go away.

Iruka Umino had just gotten out of the Academy, finishing his class' lesson. His head hurt so much, he was almost digging his index fingers in his temples to get rid of the pain. Today was long and tiring for the Academy teacher. Dealing with a notorious troublemaker all day, Konohamaru Sarutobi, Iruka was ready to enjoy his evening at home. The boy had taken up pranking ever since he joined the village's ninja academy, and it was really starting to get on his nerves. As was it for the other teachers in the ninja academy. Putting glue on his homeroom teacher's chair so he stuck to his seat after he sat down. Leaving smoke bombs to explode in the men's room dedicated solely to the teachers. It was all very annoying.

Much to his amusement however, Konohamaru's pranks reminded him of a certain former blond boy student of his, especially in the nature of them.

Still Iruka, after a long day at work, was ready to go home, relax, and read his favorite book. Or he was, until he ran into last year's troublemaker, Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto greeted him boisterous with a shout across the Academy's school yard. "Yo! Iruka-sensei, 'sup?!"

Iruka shook his head in amusement, thinking, _'Speak of the Devil_.'

"Hello Naruto." He walked up to the boy, ruffing the blond's hair. Seeing the boy's immediate pout, Iruka couldn't help but to chuckle. Naruto had a small gripe with people tugging with his hair. A pet peeve Iruka knew all too well, and frankly, abused. Still, the chūnin was pleasantly surprised to see the yellow haired genin. It had been quite some time since he last seen Naruto. He wondered how his little friend was doing. Even if his headache would probably persist being in Naruto's presence. "Naruto. It's been a while since I last seen you. What are you doing with your time?"

"Nothing much, Sensei!" Naruto placed his arms behind his head, grinning up at his former Academy teacher. "I'm really just training hard these days. I'm in the semi-finals in the Chūnin Exams! You know that, right?"

Iruka nodded. "I know. I must say, I'm impressed. Looks like you got your work cut out for you. You have to fight Neji Hyūga, after all. He graduated from the Academy as the Rookie Of The Year, and is hailed to be quite the formidable genin in the village._"_

Naruto's smile dimmed. "Yeah, I know. I'm still pretty sure I can kick his ass." Naruto clenched his fist. "I been working ten times harder than I ever have just to kick his ass this upcoming month."

Iruka smiled encouragingly. "I know. You can do it, Naruto. I believe in you."

Naruto grinned. It always felt nice to hear that from his former teacher. "So, hey, are you busy?"

The ponytail-wearing teacher shook his head. Looks like going home would have to wait. "I'm off now. I'm guessing you want to eat ramen on a few hours."

The blond paused for a second, to actually think it over before nodding. "That's cool, I guess, but originally, that wasn't what I was here for."

Iruka rose an eyebrow for second. The boy wasn't here for food? Naruto, even when he was a genin, took it upon himself to go and mooch off Iruka from time to time, and getting him to buy him some lunch or dinner. "What's up then?"

"I have a question, Iruka-sensei, and I thought, hey, since you're a chūnin, you can probably my question." Naruto explained. Naruto looked, quite uncharacteristically, stoic and ready to talk business.

"What's your question?"

"Sensei, what is like to be a chūnin?" Iruka's eyebrow rose once again. "Like, what are your responsibilities as a chūnin and what's the difference between chūnin and genin?"

"Um, well..." Iruka put a finger on his chin, taken aback somewhat. Naruto never seemed all that interested in ranks before. The only rank the blond-haired boy was really gunning for was Hokage. "That's... actually a pretty astute question, Naruto. What brought this on?"

Naruto bit his lip, wondering if telling Iruka-sensei the whole truth would get him the answers he needed. "Ebisu-sensei said that just because I beat Neji doesn't mean I'm guaranteed a promotion."

"Ebisu? That's your sensei for the month?" Iruka was confused. Shouldn't Naruto's assigned jōnin sensei be supervising his training?_ "_What happened to Kakashi-san?"

Naruto frowned slightly. "He's training Sasuke."

Iruka nodded slowly, knowing the frown was a sign of irritation from the boy. He could see it on the youngster's face. Naruto then changed the subject, continuing the conversation. "So yeah, I'm wondering how can that be? How can I beat Neji, and everyone else, yet not be allowed to become chūnin? Is Ebisu-sensei telling the truth or is he yanking my chain?"

Iruka chuckled sagely, giving Naruto the distinction that Iruka was going to give him quite the long answer. "Well, Ebisu-san is right. You can win the entire tournament, but that doesn't mean you're chūnin-material. Let me tell you a small story, Naruto. I had some sort of a rival at my second chūnin tournament. His name was Jango. He was a powerful genin for his age, and won the entire tournament. I even lost to him, and I had been a genin much longer than him. In my match, I almost had him three times in a row. Thanks to his bloodline, however, he was able to withstand my attacks, before I forfeited. I was still one of the genin in the Chūnin Exam's Promotion Ceremony rewarded a flak jacket – an honor he never received. Do you know why?"

Naruto shook his head, allowing his teacher to say the answer. "Because I actually used my head.I had him on the ropes several times, and I showed that I had the ability to defeat him, even withhis kekkai genkai. While he relied solely on the kekkai genkai, I used trickery, misdirection, and deceit to fight him. I fought like a chūnin. I thought like one. He instead fought like he had to win at all costs, and nothing else mattered. He even almost picked a fight with the proctor after I backed down because I decided to forfeit._"_

"So the exams is about fighting and thinking like a chūnin? How can I do that?"

"It's all about aptitude, Naruto. You must show that you have the aptitude to become one. You must think ahead, plan ahead, fight intelligently, and know your limits. The difference between a chūnin and a genin is this: responsibility. Chūnin are the starting representatives for the village. Genin aren't. They follow their jōnin instructors until they make the next rank. To think like a chūnin, you have to use your brain. Do you know the most powerful weapon a ninja can have?"

Naruto thought for a second, and answered, remembering a lesson he actually listened to Iruka-sensei say before. One he would – for now on – take to heart. "The most powerful weapon a ninja could have is their mind."

Iruka nodded, "That's right. Nothing else. A person could have the strongest techniques in the world. However, if their enemy knows exactly how to counter it, it means nothing. This can be applied to everything. Fighting, sparring, and especially missions. No one wants an idiot on a mission with them, or an incompetent ninja messing up something on it. What if this mission has great importance and that person screws up everything? It could end up not only end up bad for the people on the mission, but for the entire village as well. We're looking for people to lead the youth, not make it worse for them."

Iruka gave Naruto a serious look. "Chūnin are sent on missions outside of the village, and often, have missions up to B-rank, unlike the D or the uncommon C-rank missions we have genin go on. How can you be promoted if you don't show you have the responsibility to carry out missions far away from home? Remember what I told you a long time ago, Naruto? It was a pretty important lesson in class."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sensei, I barely was in your classes most of the time. I can't recall any of these so-called 'important lessons'." Naruto, rightfully so, was hit on his head. "Ouch, Sensei! I was kidding."

"You idiot! You know damn well you weren't kidding!" Iruka growled out. However, the older man calmed down and huffed. "Sometimes, Naruto. You make someone want to sock you in your teeth sometimes."

"Hehehe, you still love me though, Sensei."

Iruka shook his head. "What am I going to do with you, Naruto?" He regained his composure, clearing his throat. "The structure of a village's shinobi system – do you remember it? Re-jog your memory._"_

Naruto raised an eyebrow, wondering why his teacher was asking such an easy question. "Of course, Iruka-sensei. The structure of the village is all based on ninja rank. Genin, chūnin, jōnin, Kage. Rank wise, the Kage is on top of the pecking order, and genin are on the bottom, right?_"_

Iruka nodded. _"_There's a reason for that. Rank is important, and it holds a title and a responsibility. Genin lead villagers. Chūnin lead genin and the villagers. Jōnin leadeveryone under them. Finally, a Kage leads all in the village. Each title represents something.

The brown haired chūnin folded his arms. "The word 'Genin' is equivalent to the word 'potential'; then 'Chūnin' represents 'responsibility'; then Jōnin represents 'wisdom'; and finally, Kage represents 'ruler' for obvious reasons. You are at the Genin stage. You have the potential to do anything you want to do. Everybody around your age does. When you started out in the Academy, you were still a villager – you were at a blank slate. Now that you been genin for a few months, you paved your own way to what you want to do in life. Thus, 'potential'."

"So, if I'm at the stage of 'potential', how to I get to the next level?" Naruto asked.

"The next rank requires something else. Now, you need to be responsible. You need to show you're competent for the job. You need to show you have aptitude in what you do. You need to show that you're best at what you do, and you only. This goes for the exams as well._"_

"So wait... the Chūnin Exams are nothing but... show-off contests, talent contests?" Naruto said thoughtfully.

Iruka paused, but nodded. "In a way, yeah. Think about it. The first stage tested your mind, the second tested your body, and now, the third stage is testing both. In all of those tests, you have people watching you. Watching your skills, watching how you act. You need to show you can think and fight at the same time. You need to show what you can do. Matches are nothing more than to give you a chance to display your skills. The more matches you have, the more you can show off your skills, but you don't need to actually win your first fight in order to become a chūnin. It's basically a free get-of-jail card for any match you lose. So as long as you show what you can do, you'll pass."

"Holy _crap_." Naruto uttered, widening his eyes in realization. "The answer to Kakashi-sensei's question was there all along... I just got to show off all my stuff!" Naruto loudly finished with a large smile. A little too excitable for Iruka's tastes.

"You also need to know your _limits_, Naruto." Iruka emphasized, a small frown on his face. Naruto was a hard-working shinobi, but Iruka knew that the boy could go overboard sometimes. "Remember that as well. Responsibility entails using your skills in the right way, not overstepping your boundaries. We don't need more cannon fodder ninja in battle who die because they didn't know when to stop. Since every ninja adhere to their leader's orders, you must be ready to do the same. When you know you can't do much else, you stop. When we tell you to stop, you _stop_."

Naruto nodded, digesting all of his information. "Okay, I get it now. So in order for me to become a chūnin, I have to show that I can think and fight like one. Show my strengths, out-think my opponent, fight hard but know my limits. Okay, I think I got it."

"Good." Iruka nodded back, grinning at his former student. "I think you got this as well."

_"_Thanks Iruka-sensei!"

"No problem." Iruka smiled at his former student. He then rubbed his head, in a sheepish manner._ "_You know, I'm actually surprised you came to see me."

Naruto looked at the older man,confused. "Why wouldn't I? You were the best person to come to. You're a chūnin; I knew you for a long time now; you have experience being one; and you were willing to tell me the answer to my question."

The brown haired man chuckled, shaking his head. "I didn't tell you the answer. You figured it out on your own with the information I provided. Another thing about being a chūnin. You were responsible and honest enough to know that your knowledge about the exams was lacking, so you sought out a source that can help you out with finding the answer. If I didn't do it, you would have just went to a library, and found the book that has the answer to your question inside it." Iruka patted Naruto's shoulder. "You're thinking like a chūnin now. Good job. I think you'll do fine in the exams in two weeks."

Naruto beamed up at his teacher/older brother figure. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei. You're the best!"

"So I'm told." Iruka grinned back at his former student. "Now, how about some ramen since you're here?"

"Okay, Sensei, but I'm paying since you helped me!"

Surprised again by his former student, Iruka shrugged off his shock and decided on putting on a smile. _"_Lead the way."

* * *

After discovering what he had to do in order to get promoted after the Chūnin Exams, Naruto continued his training with Ebisu with a new vigor. When he told his teacher the answer to Kakashi Hatake's question, Ebisu smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Three days later, after training more and more with mastering the basics of using his earth-attuned chakra, Ebisu had finally announced to Naruto that they were starting on learning ninjutsu. This came to Naruto's joy as he grinned excitedly.

The blond-haired teen wanted to jump around and cheer boisterous, but contained it, and let the man instruct him on the first technique he was going to learn.

"Today, we are going to work on a technique that I believe you will find not only invaluable in your battle against Neji Hyūga, but in your entire career as well. This earth release technique is a very popularly used one, and has great application in combat. Today, I will teach you the **Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu**."

Ebisu then closed his eyes in concentration, before using his chakra, and seeping it into the ground. Naruto didn't see or sense it, but got the idea of what was happening when Ebisu started sinking into the ground. Like Naruto had learned before, Ebisu was changing the properties of the ground from soft dirt, to even softer dirt, and then sunk into it, creating a hole. Ebisu disappeared into the ground, leaving Naruto by himself.

Then interestingly enough, the dirt hole his temporary teacher left, patched itself back up. It was something interesting to Naruto indeed. Not a thing or shred of evidence Ebisu-sensei ever being where he once stood, was left. After some time, Naruto didn't hear anything. Nothing at all. He was thinking the man would be digging underground after seeing his little demonstration, but Naruto didn't see the man come back up the surface.

Then Naruto was scared out of his wits when Ebisu tapped his shoulder from behind, jumping up comically. "Geez, Sensei. A little warning next time?"

The man shook his head, chuckling. "Afraid, Naruto-kun? Yes, this is the technique. Can you tell me what you have observed from it."

Naruto calmed down, and shrugged. "Sure. It seems like you used your chakra to turn the dirt softer and went underground. I'm guessing you also spread your chakra underground, and like, turned it soft enough so you can dig through it? There's no way you could have dug simply with your hands. It would take too long to dig through all that crap without chakra."

"Ah yes. The first part of my demonstration, admittedly, that is not quite the part of the technique, but you have gotten the gist of the technique itself. I use my chakra to make the soil under turn into a fine sand, and move through it, digging much like a mole would. Hence the name of the technique. So, yes, I used my chakra to turn it softer and softer as I actively move through the earth."

Naruto frowned slightly in thought. "So... How do you exactly know where you're going with this technique? It wouldn't be useful of a technique if you're digging underground blind."

Ebisu grinned, satisfied Naruto asked the question. "I shall show you again. Naruto-kun, I want you to move around to a random location in this training grounds. Do not tell me the location of where you are moving, just move to a simple place. Also, for the sake of simplicity, do not go up a tree, okay? Wait until I go underground for this."

Naruto nodded and watched Ebisu tunnel underground again. As quietly and quickly as he could, he moved to a location and stood. It was a place close to a small patch of flowers in the training field, near a large grey boulder. Naruto waited patiently, before he was greeted with an Ebisu-sensei that appeared in front of him. Naruto looked spooked again, surprised the man was able to find him with no effort at all. "How the heck did you do that?"

"The technique has a secondary effect. It can sense the magnetic fields and give me not only a clue where I am at, but what's happening on the surface, and where you are at. "

"Holy _crap_. That's awesome."

"Indeed." Ebisu nodded. "This technique takes no sort of hand-seals to do, simply knowing how to control your chakra consistently. I will show you the technique I used before to create the hole I used to burrow underground with, and then I shall show you how to use the **Moguragakure no Jutsu** itself."

Naruto smirked. "Let's do this."

"Okay. First, seed your chakra to the ground, and let it seep through. Try to use your feet for this exercise. Then, push your chakra through the ground and soften the dirt enough so you can seep through it. Use enough chakra to make a difference in a dirt but do not use a great amount of chakra to make a huge hole. Only make so much so you can make a hole big enough to allow you through. This technique is only as useful as it used stealthily. Otherwise, you are a sitting duck. We shall work on this technique first before we go on and do the **Moguragakure no Jutsu**."

And work on it, they did. An hour in, and Naruto – thanks to the help with three shadow clones on the side – figured out the secret of creating a hole with his chakra. After one dispelled after figuring out the answer, Naruto approached the exercise differently than he was doing. Naruto imagined making a circle with his chakra, spinning it slowly before it became a perfect 360 degrees circle. then sunk his chakra more and more into the ground, until Naruto felt himself sinking into the ground. Then, Naruto made a sizable hole for himself. Before he sunk all the way underground, and therefore had no access to hand-seals, he made another clone to replace the one that dispelled before, and they followed suit and made a hole. All of them were underground in a matter of time.

Ebisu nodded, and walked to the hole Naruto was in. "Second, I will show you how to cover the hole. Channel your chakra into the wall of the dirt hole you create, and then move the chakra to cover the hole itself."

Naruto took a bit of time to get what was instructed of him, but with experimentation from him and his clones, he gotten it, and now the light of the day was gone. He could now only hear Ebisu's voice. "Man, it's fucking _dark _down here, Sensei."

"The underground usually has no candle lights to guide you, Naruto-kun." Came the deadpan response from Naruto's teacher. "Now, we shall work on the **Moguragakure no Jutsu**. You shall use the magnetic fields to help you find where you are, then your clones, and then me. Channel chakra into the dirt, change it to sand, and spread it around where you are, then when you get it, move."

Naruto nodded to himself, before closing his eyes in concentration. Since he didn't have enough room to raise a hand (he should have made a large hole, he lamented to himself), he would have to use his body itself to place chakra to the dirt wall in front of him, and that was a little more harder than simply using his hands. His hands was the most used place of concentrating his chakra after all. Nevertheless, Naruto gotten it down, and with his teacher's instruction, moved slightly in the sand-turned dirt and dug with his hands and feet. "Okay, where are you?!" Ebisu yelled. It was probably the only way Naruto could hear him. Naruto definitely couldn't see him.

Naruto kept his eyes closed, and focused on sensing above the Earth's surface. "I am by a tree with a long cut in, Sensei! A few steps in front of me!" Naruto yelled back.

"Where are your clones?!"

"One clone's in the front of the forest tree I was talking about, directly in front of me! Another clone is more to my left, nearby a stream of water, and the last clone is nearby the entrance of the training grounds, Sensei, in back of me!"

Ebisu then yelled again, "And where am I?!"

Naruto concentrated again for a brief moment. "You're by a big boulder, a few meters to my right, Sensei!"

"Excellent! Naruto, you and your clones dig back above ground!"

"Yes, Sensei, dattebayo!" The original Naruto started digging diagonally up, and pushed through, until he was completely vertical, and felt the Earth above him soften, so he can climb out. Naruto stopped channeling chakra into any part of his body – lest he sink again – and looked at his clones. The two nearby him raced over by him, and grinned triumphantly, while he did the same. The clone the most far out, by the entrance of the large training grounds dispelled, and Naruto was fed its memories.

"Splendid job, Naruto-kun. A little more work with the technique, and I am sure you will find it very useful in the exams to come."

Naruto grinned. "It's cool. I think I'm going to like this." Yeah. A combination with his clone, and he could see everything on the battlefield, both on ground and under it. Best thing was none of his opponents wouldn't have any sort of idea. The element of surprise was a powerful tool indeed. "So, what next, Sensei? You know, after I mess with this technique a little bit more."

"What is next? Hmm, we have made excellent time in the short time of two weeks. You have worked on your chakra control quite a bit, learned how to walk on water, learned how the basics of molding earth chakra, the basics of chakra flow into items, and learned an earth ninjutsu. So, the next step will be... To relax for today." Ebisu secretly enjoyed Naruto's following reaction: the boy tripped on something in the air, and planted his face into the ground.

"Wait, what?!" Naruto yelled from the ground.

"I say we can take a small break from all of this, Naruto-kun. Especially today. It's not even lunch time, and you have done what I had planned you to practice all day. Good job."

"So wait, what am I supposed to do then? I wanna learn more!" Naruto started picking himself off the ground. "There's nothing you're willing to teach me today?"

"Nothing at all." Ebisu chuckled, looking over at Naruto's defiant stare. "I did not say you could not _learn_ something today, just not from me. We have been training straight for several days, from sun up, to the evening itself. Honestly, my teaching energies are drained." Naruto had a feeling that was a lie. "It's almost lunch anyway, if you had not noticed, Naruto-kun. Go eat something, maybe practice on your own, or better yet, go do something else for the day. Have you ever went to the library like I asked almost a week ago?"

Naruto grunted, admitting, "No, Sensei."

"Then maybe it's time to brush up a little on your knowledge of the Byakugan."

Naruto wanted to growl at his teacher, but it came out more like a whine. "Fine."

"Ta-ta, Naruto-kun!" Ebisu then disappeared in instantaneous movement – a sign of the **Shunshin no Jutsu**. The common way a jōnin liked to run away from a person. Naruto sighed dejectedly, and picked up his belongings. At the moment, his stomach did growl at him, and Naruto knew the man caught him good.

Lunch at Ramen Ichiraku again.

* * *

There were three main libraries in Konohagakure. The first other one was the Konohagakure Archive Library, which a place had information on people of the village. The Archive Library stored profiles, documented history of past and current shinobi of the village, had sections dedicated to missing-nin of the world that once belonged to Konohagakure, a station where they could pick up Bingo Books – books that contained information on blacklisted ninja whether or not they were rogue shinobi – and information about several factions, minor civilian villages, countries, and hidden villages inside and outside Hi no Kuni. The library was built inside the Hokage Rock Monument mountain, high and tucked away. Naruto never been there, but maybe it would come in handy when he went up in rank. Besides, he doubted he even had clearance to go up there.

The second one was the more standard one, the Konoha Civilian Library or simply the Konoha Library. It was a library open to the general public of Konoha. Centrally located in the heart of the village, the business section, general information involving simple books like "How to cook" or advanced books involving mathematics, medicine and health, economy, history, or other subjects belonged in this library. Generally, the library was visited mostly by civilians, but some shinobi – especially ones who were studying medicine and becoming the village's top doctors – visited the place. Naruto visited the library a few times in his life, but not very much. Besides learning how to cook on his own, and along other basic things that were good for anyone to know, Naruto felt he didn't need to go there.

The final one was one Naruto felt he would be visiting more and more in the near future. The Konohagakure Shinobi Library was a tall library only allowed to shinobi of Konohagakure. No civilians was allowed in, neither were trainees in the Academy or anyone without the right clearance. The reason? Because there was many things pertaining to shinobi, like how to use elemental chakra, inside that could potentially be dangerous to regular villagers. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, kenjutsu, fūinjutsu – if it was a ninja art, you would find it in this place. Naruto headed over to the Konohagakure Shinobi Library after his lunch.

Naruto had to tell the people at the front desk of his registration number and show them his ID card. It had been his first time in the library, and they gave him an ID card so he can further go inside and access the library's books without showing them his card every time. They also mentioned the card also upgraded when he rose up in ranks in the Konohagakure Ninja Force. Without their ID, Naruto would have to present his regular ID every time, and sometimes, Naruto didn't carry around the card in his village. He felt no need. The card was free, so Naruto saw no reason not to get it. Naruto was greeted by a librarian – some brunette female clerk – at the front desk.

She told him the general rules of the library in a bored tone, droning on as if she said this exact same speech everyday working here to the newbies of the library. "You can access the library for as long as you can, so as long as we're open. We are open from 5AM to 10PM from Monday-Friday. The weekends, we are closed. Due to your status as a genin, you are allowed on the first floor of the library. Do not go to the second or three floor of the library – those are reserved to chūnin and jōnin-level shinobi. If you are found up there, you will be banned for the library for at least six month on your first offense. Second offense will cost you a year, and a sizable fine. Third offense, you will no longer be allowed in this library. Do you understand?"

Naruto had really focused on the words "If you are found", and decided if he wanted to learn some elemental ninjutsu that were of a higher tier, he would have to sneak up there one day. Naruto nodded yes nevertheless to the girl's question, and she nodded herself. Then, she shooing him away, and going back to her work: reading some sort of orange book. He knew what it was and he had half a mind to tell her why in the hell was she reading that pervy book, Icha Icha, when she should probably be working on other things, but Naruto let it go. Naruto rolled his eyes at the action, and went about his merry way, going deeper into the library, though Naruto was in no real hurry.

Books and him never really clicked. He hated reading, writing, and anything pertaining to a book. Still, the place had its uses, and since it housed information about techniques ranging from all ranks, it was useful. However, since he was a genin, that gave him access to low-rank techniques. Normal genin didn't have access to A or B-rank techniques right off the back or couldn't perform them because of the lack of chakra, knowledge, or experience with them. Technically speaking, he wasn't supposed to know a technique like the **Kage Bunshin** anyway since the technique and its kinjutsu variant was in the Scroll Of Seals, the scroll he stole that night when he failed the graduation exam out of his academy. However, since he had already astounding chakra levels, he could use his favorite ninjutsu effectively. Even more than that, learning elemental ninjutsu like Earth Release was an art most genin his age didn't even dabble into, focusing on learning advance chakra control exercises instead. If he wanted to learn more stuff, he probably would have to learn it somewhere else, like his teacher.

However, all of that wasn't his intention today. The place wasn't just a place that had info about normal techniques. It had information about kekkai genkai, and more importantly, it housed information about dōjutsu such as the Byakugan. That was his mission: find more about the Byakugan his opponent would be wielding.

Naruto wandered and wandered, looking up the "B" section of the first floor of the library, and moved his eyes from many books. Spelling out "Byakugan" in his head, he seen several books first starting with Byakugan as its title. He started humming a jaunty tune, taking his time trying to find the book as he seen others either walk past him from outside the aisles. Finding the book "Byakugan: The All-Seeing Eye", and taking it off the shelf, Naruto scrubbed the book once of some dust, before move out of the aisle.

Doing that got him to run into someone, someone he knew. "Naruto? You're here?"

Naruto looked at the person and raised an eyebrow for a second. Then, he grinned. "Oh, hey Shikamaru. Funny running into you... well, literally."

Shikamaru didn't acknowledge the tasteless pun, and rose his own eyebrow at Naruto. "What are you doing here? This is a library – usually people are here to read."

"And I am too. I'm looking for a book to _read_. I see you came here specially to just antagonize me." Naruto deadpanned.

"Idiot." The Nara boy lazily drawled, while rubbing the shoulder Naruto bumped into. "I'm here looking for a book for Chōji. Guy asked seeing I was coming here originally to return a book."

Naruto nodded, before returning to scan the books on the wall. "This is my first time in here. I was looking for a book on Kekkai Genkai."

"Bloodlines? Why are you looking for that?"

"I have an opponent whose has a dōjutsu, duh!" Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why wouldn't I look up a book about Kekkai Genkai?"

The dark-haired boy next to him in the aisle shook his head at the blond. "You sure as hell pick a good time looking for something to beat Neji with, Naruto. The Chūnin Exams semi-finals is starting in less than two weeks. How are you supposed to come up with anything that can counter it?"

"Don't worry about me, Shikamaru." Naruto shot back cattily, a little annoyed at the normal lazy boy's attitude. Most of this conversation was either Shikamaru taking shots at Naruto's own abilities, or insulting his intelligence. "You should just worry about your own self. Your opponent can throw freaking tornadoes at you; I suggest you learn how to dodge 'em."

"Troublesome. I'll stop teasing you, and leave you alone. Later."

As Naruto saw the boy leave, an idea popped in his head. "Hey, Shikamaru."

"Yeah?"

"Do you have some information about the Byakugan that I can use?" Didn't hurt asking about it, especially when he knew the Nara boy was much smarter than he let on.

"Nothing I can think of. Sorry. I got to go anyway, and pick up this cook book for Chōji anyway."

"Wait!" Naruto yelled, and got hushed by people in his aisle and some others nearby. "Sorry!" He called back, only to get hushed again. The boy grumbled, and with a more quieter voice, said, "Dude, just help a friend out. If I had info, I would tell you about the Suna chick you got to fight in the exams. Can't you help a fellow Leaf nin out?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Don't pull the 'friend card', Naruto. We barely talked in the Academy, let alone are friends."

Naruto narrowed his blue eyes at the guy, before sighing dejectedly. "Fine. I guess I'll figure it out myself."

Shikamaru paused, seeing Naruto's face, before sighing in guilt. "Fine. I'll tell you all I know about the darn Byakugan. Okay?"

Naruto's face immediately perked up, a triumphing smile on his face. "Great! Thanks, Shika."

"Keep your voice down, loudmouth." The Nara groaned, knowing he had been conned by the sad act by Naruto. "And who told you that you can call my Shika? Bah. Damn. Whatever. Alright, so the Byakugan. It's a pearly white, seeing-eye technique that is in the possession of all Hyūga clansmen and women. You know the basics. The dōjutsu allows the user to see through solid objects, have a near 360 degrees field of vision, see through several disguising techniques, have telescopic-like range of sight, and the ability to see chakra flow. This makes these people great trackers, and strong opponents. They also are natural counters for genjutsu and several ninjutsu as well."

Naruto nodded, already knowing most of this information from Ebisu-sensei. "Anything else I should know?"

"Well, if you're expecting to fight Neji using a frontal approach, then you're going to lose fast. Charging in on a Hyūga using simple taijutsu is suicide. Keep your distance of course. That's what I would do, but I don't know if you got any techniques that are at a range. You strike me as a close-range fighter really."

Naruto didn't say anything, not willing to tell or brag Shikamaru about his new Earth Release technique. Even if a little part of him wanted to. Ebisu-sensei advised him not to reveal to anyone what he learned, outside them being the Hokage himself. Suppose his enemy was in the next aisle, listening in on him and Shikamaru's conversation? Neji was, after all, from the same village as them. Who knew where his opponent could be? "Okay, no rushing in, and keep my distance. I figured as much. Nothing new."

"Your sensei told you all of this before?" Seeing Shikamaru's colleague nod, the Nara sighed. "So why the heck did you ask me?"

"You might had info I didn't know. You were still useful and I confirmed what I know before. Thanks. I would tell you what I knew about that Suna chick, but..."

"You mean Temari?" Shikamaru grunted. "I know enough. She's proficient in Wind Release techniques. Instead of keeping my distance, I need to actually be close to her, and that's not the style of combat I specialize in. The faster I put her down, the faster I win. Maybe even take away her fan, if I can imagine."

"Her fan?"

"Yeah, she uses her wind attacks using that as a medium. Take that away, and it'll make it easier to deal with her."

"Yeah." Naruto grinned, encouragingly. "You'll kick her ass. She's not that tough."

The ponytail shinobi raised an eyebrow at his livelier colleague. "She kicked Tenten's ass easy, and Tenten's whole team has much more experience as shinobi than our entire graduating class. She was the strongest kunoichi in the exams that's from our village."

Naruto nodded his head. "I guess you're right then. She will be tough."

"I definitely know that. She and her siblings – especially that Gaara guy – are not normal genin." Shikamaru rubbed his shoulder, shaking out some phantom pain. As if the thought of fighting the Sunagakure kids would be painful. Naruto wasn't all too sure about that puppeteer, Kankurō – he didn't really look like much – but Temari, sure, and _definitely _Gaara. Gaara had no qualms about murdering people – just look at what he was going to do to Lee. "Alright, I'm going to go now. I'll see you later. Stick to your studies, loudmouth. Maybe you'll find something else about the Byakugan that I don't know."

"Will do! And Shika?" The boy once again turned around to address Naruto. "Thanks again for the info, dude. We should hang some more!"

"I'll think about that last thing." Shikamaru had a small grin on his face. "Alright. Good luck in the exams, Naruto."

"You too." Naruto said back, watching his former classmate leave him with a wave. He then scratched his chin, and closed his eyes in thought. "Hmm..."

Talking to Shikamaru got him thinking about what would happen if he had to fight other people if he beat Neji in his first match. _'Lemme think about who's in the tournament. Let's think for a sec. So, it's me, Neji-teme, Shikamaru, that Temari chick, that puppet guy Kankur__ō, creepy guy Shino, even creepier guy Gaara, and Sasuke-teme. __If I beat Neji, and Shikamaru beats Temari, we fight, so I gotta know how to fight him. There's even a chance I have to fight that Temari girl, which I hope not. I mean, I guess I got a strategy against her. I just got to think how I can get that darn fan away from her. This is more complicated than I thought. Then again, I could just try to fight in a few matches, show my skills, and just forfeit...' _

Naruto shook his head, chuckling. _'Nah, screw that! I'm going to keep going until I can't go any further. Sasuke-teme's not going to quit, and neither am I!'_

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N: **Geez, so much of a long chapter and not much action. Had to stop it, as I was entering 20-page territory. Tiring on a story I supposedly said wasn't going to have so many damn words. Ech. Sorry for the slow pace. However, I'm going to make it up to you. As I write this, I am sure I have already written and put up Chapter 5, with plenty of action involved. Yes, finally, we enter the Chūnin Exams again. After that, I hope to change up the pace of the story quite a bit.

Thank you for reading, and until then.

**Translation List:**

Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu – Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole Technique


	5. V

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 5_

* * *

_**One Day Until The Chūnin Exams…**_

Days were winding down, and the month was coming to an end. In a day, Naruto would be fighting Neji. He learned a few more earth release ninjutsu for his teacher. However, he came to realize that his techniques were more defensive and supplementary in nature; stuff that was more offensive, Naruto only learned two techniques.

The first one was a C-rank Earth Release technique named "**Doton: Ishi no Kōu**" which uprooted hardened pieces of the earth from the ground, and dropped them down on the head of target, or targets. Supposedly, more chakra fed to the technique, and the larger the size of rocks became. Naruto hadn't tried it out, because his target when using it was Ebisu-sensei, and he was trying to get down how to plain using it anyway.

The second technique was a technique he was practicing for the last few days trying to get down: **Doton: Kengan no Jutsu**. After applying a few hand seals, and placing his arm in the ground, Naruto encased it with hardened stone, giving him the ability to strike at his opponents with a hardened punch. It was like a gauntlet made of rock itself. Naruto could do one of his arms or both. Granted, the downside of this technique made it nigh-impossible to form hand-seals correctly due to the rigid form of the rocks on his limbs. His arsenal of techniques that he knew how to use without hand seals was also pretty low, so that also was a problem. Nevertheless, it was still a good technique for him, fitting his close-range style of fighting quite a bit.

The best technique Naruto managed to snag was the **Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu**, hands down. Hiding underground was an amazing ability, for a relatively low-ranking technique that took a very generous amount of chakra from him. It was incredibly surprising for people who didn't see it coming, and combined with his shadow clones, Naruto could completely control the flow of the battlefield most definitely. However, it wasn't offensive at all, which could be a problem for some of his potential opponents. Neji wasn't the only person Naruto had to worry about in the Chūnin Exams.

Every other technique was not made to be offensive, but Ebisu-sensei assured him that when fighting Neji, it wouldn't matter, since the point of the battle was to make sure Neji never had the chance to touch him, and to end it relatively quickly.

Although they trained on hours on end getting Naruto a little more familiar with utilizing his earth element, Naruto noticed they spent much less time focusing on strategies on beating Neji. It took him a little bit to realize that, "Hey! Neji isn't going to be _only _guy you're fighting in the Chūnin Exams, dumbo!" Instead, they came up with a bit of strategies for everyone Naruto could possibly fight in the exams.

Neji: Take him down as quickly as you could, and disable his ability to use his chakra. If he lacked that, Neji would fall. Not to mention his clones would be key in the match, as will his new abilities in Earth Release.

Temari: Take away her fan, and fight her that way. Temari made a showing in the last part of the exams to stay _away _from her opponent, giving her room to shoot off waves, and funnels of wind. As Shikamaru added when Naruto last talked to him, a big strong piece of info Shikamaru had given out was Temari's reliance on her fan to use Wind Release techniques – perhaps over-reliance on her fan. That could work in his favor if he somehow found a way to get her to stop using it.

Kankurō: Almost the same as Temari. If you could make sure he couldn't use his puppet, he would be just as helpless in battle.

Shikamaru: Make sure you got in closely, but watch your surroundings, and do not rely heavily on using the **Doton: Mogurakure no Jutsu**. Sensei explained that Shikamaru could extend his shadows to great heights in complete darkness, as the hole made. In battle, Naruto will be quite hard-pressed to cover up the holes he made when he used the **Doton: Mogurakure no Jutsu**. If Shikamaru could see where Naruto was tunneling at, extended his shadow to the hole, he could completely immobilize Naruto underground. Instead, Naruto had to make sure he got a good hit on Shikamaru and put him down for the count. Using shadow clones without hand seals might also be a good thing for him should he get pinned down by the Nara's shadow hold technique.

Shino: Fight him and overwhelm him with sheer stamina. Shino could immobilize his opponents using his bugs to drain his chakra. However, those bugs could absorb only so much, and Shino could summon only so much. Shino, like Temari, Kankurō, and Shikamaru, liked fighting at a distance, so he needed to get in, and fight him. Unlike them, however, Ebisu-sensei insisted that he didn't to worry about Shino restricting his movements because Naruto had too much chakra to absorb.

Sasuke: Knock him out quickly. Ebisu-sensei had based Sasuke's skills as a prior showing at the Chūnin Exams preliminaries as he excelled in close-range combat, combining his skills in taijutsu, Katon ninjutsu, shurikenjutsu, and his bloodline, the Sharingan, which worked on predicting body movements of the opponent. The strategy for fighting Sasuke was still in the process of being constructed. Sasuke _definitely _gotten stronger in the month where he was being focused on by Kakashi-sensei. Ebisu-sensei stated Naruto would have to get more information about Sasuke when Naruto watched him in battle against Gaara. However, there was a big thing Naruto caught on about that one. Ebisu-sensei spoke in a tone that Naruto didn't have to worry too much about Sasuke. However, it wasn't because Ebisu sounded confident in Naruto being able to defeat his teammate/rival.

It was because Ebisu sounded like Sasuke was going to _lose to Gaara from the jump_. Every time he mentioned a scenario where it would be him vs Sasuke in the exams, he would start by saying "_If _Sasuke made it that far..." in the tournament. It was a very little detail that Naruto caught on, especially when Naruto asked a few times about fighting Sasuke. So, what? That meant Gaara was stronger than Sasuke? No way. Now, granted, Gaara was strong, definitely. The redhead from Sunagakure managed to defeat Rock Lee, one of the strongest and fastest taijutsu users he have ever seen, in the exams. Full-out, Rock Lee had been faster than that bastard Neji, the mutt Kiba, and Sasuke-teme, who were already fast in their own right. Rock Lee had proven that so as long as the person was fast enough, they could get past Gaara's supposed "Absolute Defense."

However, Gaara's mighty defense and sand-kinetic abilities proved to get the best out of Rock Lee in the end, and ended up almost killing Lee in the end, with the boy still recovering in the hospital. Even after being hit by Lee in that devastating taijutsu attack, even after Lee thrashing his ass around several times, Gaara had _still _came up on top, and was still in the tournament.

Which lead to the final possible match-up in the tournament: Naruto vs Gaara. Ebisu had stated quite simply to him: "If you cannot find a way to get past his sand, forfeit the match." Which prompted Naruto to, when told that initially, to get slightly annoyed. Ebisu-sensei then calmly shook his head and explained to him afterward.

"_Gaara's sand prevents him from getting hurt from anything, even when he himself does not see the attack coming. It almost _thinks_ on its own. Gaara's main method of attack is to capture his opponents in his sand, and then crush them. Close-range combat is out of this one, and you lack anything sort of mid-range or long-range attack. He also can use his sand to create attacks for all ranges as well. Your earth ninjutsu can not do much to him. You must understand that fighting him will do you no good, Naruto. If you want to become a chūnin, you must remember that sometimes it is better to retreat when you know you cannot win, to survive another day."_

And after calming down, and mulling it over… Ebisu was right on all accounts. Gaara could defeat one of the most strongest genin in Konohagakure he's come to know in the past month – Rock Lee. Lee was also the fastest one as well. Naruto and Ebisu worked on his ninjutsu, some of his taijutsu, and mostly on his chakra control in these weeks. Hell, they even spent a few days working on hand-seal speed because Ebisu personally found Naruto's speed with hand seals to be almost insulting! Speed was a little different, and it took a while to refine that. Yes, Naruto felt a little faster in his time of training with Ebisu, especially when they sparred, but Naruto was far from the level of Rock Lee, and was still behind Neji and Sasuke in terms of speed as well.

So Naruto decided that it was the right call to forfeit in case he didn't find a way to defeat Gaara, so he could avoid getting hurt. However, that didn't mean Naruto wouldn't try. He would try, because there was no way he would give up so easily against that guy! That just wasn't his style, dattebayo!

Still though, Naruto had hopes in his teammate, Sasuke, to kick Gaara's ass, and defeat him before Naruto had to worry about the Suna nin. He had more hope in Sasuke than Ebisu-sensei, definitely.

Besides all the mulling over the Chūnin Exams, Naruto found himself having the training sessions everyday last less and less. Ebisu-sensei stated that Naruto had been taught everything the tokubetsu jōnin wanted to teach him this month. All that was less to do was further refining of the techniques Naruto had been given, and some more small things like working on Naruto's hand seals. Everything else Naruto personally wanted to, was to be done on his own time. So training lasted from approximately 7AM to 10PM, before Ebisu left out to enjoy his day and telling Naruto to enjoy his.

Today, for at least one hour, Naruto had trained for a bit on his own in a public training grounds. However, he found himself not doing much, except a bit exercise practicing his earth chakra, and applying earth chakra to a few of his weaponry. Other than that, Naruto hadn't done much, nor accomplished any sort of new feat. Disappointed a bit, Naruto found himself – instead of training – wandering back to the village, slowly trekking out the training grounds.

It looked like there wasn't much else to do today.

Naruto did what he usually did when he was bored: he wandered the village, looking for stuff to do.

* * *

Naruto found himself in a shop. A little thing that was mostly out of the way from the usual places in the Shopping District of Konohagakure. Frankly, not too crazy of a place, but that was fine with him. Usually, the big stores had people that were far from likable for his taste. The usual stink on how he was a "demon child" this, and "bad kid" that. Before, years ago, that would have effected him, but now, it was like an annoying little thing that kept bother him. The guy behind the clerk's counter – a tall man with a black, scruffy beard and not much hair on his head – didn't shoot him a glare at all, and nodded towards him, but other than that, didn't say or do anything that showed how he felt. Naruto thought it was refreshing nonetheless, and nodded back.

The shop didn't specialize in selling ninja weaponry, so you wouldn't find kunai, shuriken, swords, exploding tags, sealing paper, etc. Instead, it simply was for ninja attire. You would find bandages, scarves, pants, t-shirts, sandals of different colors, and even different colored forehead protectors. The protectors were situated behind where the cashier and his register was at. Of course, this store only sold those protectors to people who were ninjas. Best way to show you were a shinobi was wearing your own standard blue forehead protector the Academy gave you. They had jackets too; ninja-styled gi in colors of white, navy blue, dark red, and black; fishnet shirts; and vests. They had a lot of stuff on racks that Naruto could spend hours looking through, and he was no fashionista. He just liked shit he liked.

Looking at all had an effect on Naruto. The genin took a second to inspect his own jacket and pants, and found his favorite combination of orange and blue had a lot of wear and tear upon it. Holes, shallow cuts and slashes painted his orange/blue jacket all around, and his pants were almost no different. All of them came from older missions, especially from the mission back in Nami no Kuni, and the fighting in the first half of the Chūnin Exams. Pretty soon, he would have to get rid of his jacket anyway (he could see some of the inner cotton come out), which saddened him a little. He got the jacket as a gift to himself when he turned 11, and had it ever since. He quite loved the jacket, despite people disliking it. Not like he gave a fuck what they thought anyway.

Naruto shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I'll find something like my current jacket here."

So Naruto decided to shop for things orange, and blue. Fortunately, he found some blue. Unfortunately, there was little to nothing that was orange, and all of them were t-shirts and stuff like that. He was looking for a jacket that was like his. If it was an exact copy, he would be even happier with it. The more time progressed, he didn't see anything like his jacket. There was a whole lot of blue, dark green, and black however. Some of them, he admitted, looked good, but he was determined to find something with orange on it – something!

Naruto took so long finding things, the clerk from behind the desk came by, and asked him if he needed some help. Naruto drew a breath he was holding in. "Do you guys have orange-colored jackets like the one I have on?"

"Um," The clerk started with, scratching his scruffy chin. "To be honest, kid, not many ninjas these days rock orange at all. Not exactly the most… _inconspicuous _color, if I say myself. I doubt you're going to find anything orange in this shop."

"Ah, I see..." Naruto trailed off, thinking about leaving the store. Then again, he was checking the prices on the jackets and clothing he seen, and the prices were looking nice. He already still had some pay left from the A-rank mission in Nami no Kuni still, and the D-ranks his team took on a little bit afterward.

"But, I think you should keep looking. You might find something with orange on it, just not a jacket primary orange though. If anything, we do have red jackets. That's the most closest thing to orange I can think of." The clerk shrugged.

Naruto nodded, noting that in his head. "Thanks, I'll check around."

The guy gave Naruto a friendly smile, before returning back to his place in the store, behind the cash register. Naruto meanwhile decided that he might not be able to find orange here, so maybe he should look for other colors. He liked black, and blue; wasn't against red, green, or white; and hated anything that looked girly. In his mind, he figured purple, yellow, and pink to be the "girly colors". Like any 13 year old boy, he wanted to look cool.

He found something closely resembling his orange and blue jacket. A red jacket with black on the shoulder parts, but no white tassels or collar. It was even missing the red swirl that he liked strangely on the things he usually brought. Still, it closely resembled his current jacket, and since he didn't see anything orange at all at this point, his options were limited. Just as he was reaching for the red jacket, he saw something else, and dropped it all together. It was a mostly black jacket, with a dark orange collar. Its orange collar then connected to an orange middle, and the bottom of the jacket was orange also. On the left shoulder, a red swirl that he always associated with Konoha stood pronounced and it reminded him a lot of the red swirl crest that was on his current jacket. Out of curiously, he inspected the jacket some more, and found the jacket's inner lining was orange, and was delighted to see so.

The jacket was a three-in-one combination, because it also came with a set of fingerless black gloves, and matching pants that had an orange inner lining like the jacket. He imagined himself with the jacket on, folding up the sleeves of the jacket, and the bottom of the pants, and he would have that dash of orange like he wanted it. It would be perfect.

Taking the jacket with him to a fitting room nearby, he discarded his beat up orange jacket, and took off the orange pants he had on, and put on the black ones. He liked it a lot, enjoying how it felt on him. The orange jacket was a lot bulkier than the black one, as the black one was more tailored to his actual size, and hugged him better. The black gloves were cool too, and if he didn't want to put them on, he could always leave them at home somewhere. However, he was feeling with all this black on, his forehead protector and sandals – both blue – was looking out of place.

"Time for a new pair of sandals and a protector then." Naruto commented to himself with a smile. He quickly took off the new jacket and pants, and put back on the clothing he came in the store with. He left the room, walked to the shoes' section, and grabbed himself a pair of black sandals in his size.

Naruto approached the counter where the clerk was. "Excuse me, but can I get a black forehead protector from in back of you?"

"Sure, finally got a style you like, huh, kid?" The clerk grabbed two forehead protectors for Naruto to choose from. "Now, a short-style bandana, medium, or long?"

"Long." Naruto was liking how the long one looked. The clerk nodded, and put the protector of Naruto's choice onto of the jacket and pants.

"Anything else?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm good; how much?"

After paying, Naruto decided that he was going to wear his new clothing outside, and returned to the fitting room. Placing the old jacket, pants, forehead protector, and sandals into the bag his new clothing was supposed to be inside, he left the shop feeling good.

* * *

_**The Day Of The Chūnin Exams**_

The crowd was alive, shouting for matches to come. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people were here, filling the stadium from all sides. Naruto, dressed in his new outfit, felt a little nervous. So many people's eyes were on him today, so many would be judging. It was at that moment he knew that he would either do himself and everyone he knew proud, or prove that he still was the weakest genin in the group. For years, he had been mocked and vilified by his own classmates – most of the people he would call friends – because of his grades, and slacking off in school.

But it had been just about half of a year since then now. Things changed, and so did he. They didn't know about what he went through to get here; the hardships he faced to just do so. One month to shape up, or lose in the first round. He wouldn't be losing to anyone today. He counted on it. He would not only being doing this to shut Neji up, and avenged Hinata, but to avenge his own self. He was out here, to prove that he improved, and he was worthy of respect.

So, come Neji, come Temari, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Gaara – or anyone else he had to fight. Naruto Uzumaki would beat them all the same.

The contestants all were down here, allowing the crowd to see them. Naruto stood nearby his opponent, Neji, and even here, he could feel his blood boil for this guy. He was the same type of asshole that needed a good ass-kicking to show him the way. Naruto should know, of course, because he was once that type of asshole. However, training with Ebisu-sensei opened up Naruto's eyes quite a bit. Naruto had much to learn, so much so. He had no more time to act like a kid to do anything of that. He had to grow up, and become that legendary shinobi he saw in his dreams.

Naruto could barely hear the proctor call his name, as the rest of the contestants are no longer in the arena. Neji and him separate; he's on one side and Naruto is on the other. Neji is already in his family's fighting style, while Naruto moves to a more looser stance. He remembered what he had to do, and it didn't involve thinking he was going to fight Neji head on.

For what seemed like a while of just staring at each other, Neji was the first to say something. "That's a nice, newer outfit than the clown outfit you had on last month, Uzumaki. You should have not bought it; it's just only going to end up ripped and tattered."

Naruto snorted. "Like you're going to be able to touch me, guy."

"I assure you, it won't be hard. I know how much of a loser you really are. You're a slacker who barely graduated from his class, who won against his opponent by farting in his face. How you've gotten here was based on sure luck – nothing more. For people like you, or Hinata, or anyone who hasn't been born into the greatness, there's only one place you'll be: in second. It is your fate to be so."

For a second, Naruto felt rage into his body. How dare this self-absorbed, senseless prick, who spewed nothing but that "fate" shit out his mouth, talk about his cousin like that? He was used to people talking shit about him, but not people like Hinata. She didn't deserve that at all, or the beating Neji gave her last month. For a second, Naruto was about to shout back an answer in anger, let his rage get the best of him.

However, he took a second to let the words settle in. After a bit, he realized what this was. Neji tried this before against Hinata, and he saw right through it. Neji was one of those guys who had to hurl insults at people just to make them more sloppier. He liked to discourage, or anger people, and then when they made a mistake, Neji would swoop in, and beat them. It almost worked on Hinata, had Naruto not told her to stand up, and although she lost, she fought harder to prove him wrong. Naruto had seen the fire in that girl's pearl eyes, and it spoke something to Naruto.

Hinata was a lot like Naruto. Both were mocked and teased because of their ways. Hinata was the meek, shy kid, and Naruto was the loudmouth who didn't seem to stop getting in trouble. People like Neji liked picking on them because they seemed like easy targets, and had their own heads shoved so far up their asses, that the shit fumes started confusing them, and they started believing in the crap they were spewing. They thought they were superior, unbeatable.

But they were far from it. They were just bullies, and bullies wouldn't stop bothering their victims, until their victims stood up, and knocked their fucking lights out. Naruto would do so, shape this anger he felt inside into energy he could use to show the world he was no longer that dumb kid from six months ago, who relied too much on luck, and less on actual skill.

Neji had planned for this: to come in battle, nose high, sneer deep, teeth bared. A few insulting words would aid him, their purpose to make Naruto get worked up, and to make the Uzumaki make a few slip ups to make him lose the match faster. Naruto knew really what Neji was pulling. Mind games, and Naruto would not being playing it.

"So you came to talk down on me, or actually fight me? How long have you been out the Academy? A year and some change, and you're still on that kid shit? You best worry about fighting me serious, Neji. I heard all that stuff all before." Prodigy or not, Neji was not leaving here without a knot knocked upside his head.

Neji just smirked at the Uzumaki, and wordlessly activated his clan's dōjutsu, the Byakugan. The proctor had gave his consent to start the match, and already Naruto had started the plan. His hands went up to use his favorite technique: the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**.

Neji had seen the move, and was waiting for them to be summoned. Much to his surprise, he saw nothing, and Naruto put his hands down. Neji had seen the surge of chakra inside Naruto's body, but seen nothing, nothing at all. Something did not sit well in Neji's stomach; he kept his guard up.

Next thing he knows, he's barely blocking a strike from his left from his blond-haired opponent. Neji didn't take time wondering how the hell did the Uzumaki manage to make a shadow clone without him know, and instead attempted to counter, slamming a palm into the clone's head. The clone went up in smoke, blowing away from Neji.

The Hyūga smirked over at the Naruto original who kept standing there, "It was a foolish attempt to-"

He didn't finished his sentence when he "saw" rocks raining down from above his head. Neji moved to the side, and dodged five large rocks dropping into the space he once occupied. They were large enough to almost boulders. Again, he had not seen his opponent do so, which he found strange. Was this a technique Uzumaki could use without hand-seals or was he fast enough to be seen? And he noticed that it was stones, so that meant an affinity with earth. Interesting.

Then, he watched as four clones approached him, running swiftly to him with kunai in their hands. Neji waited for them, and swiftly defeating them without much of a sweat. He couldn't help but to snort derisively at this. "This is your plan, Naruto? To throw clone after clone after me? Why don't you try something else? All you're doing is wasting time-"

Neji however could not reach fast enough to Naruto's next attack as a clone – or the real Naruto himself – jumped out of the ground with a fist, uppercutting him in his chin. Neji heard the crunch in his chin, and he wailed in pain as he flew back. He then saw four other Narutos jump out the earth itself and slam their knees into his stomach.

The Hyūga boy wheezed in pain. _'He hits just as hard as Lee.'_

He felt all of the clones hold his extremities, as he attempted to move but it was in vain.

Naruto appeared at Neji's head, and peered down at him. The blond looked into the Hyūga's eyes, and asked, "Didn't I tell you to take me seriously?" At that comment, the four Naruto clones started attacking Neji, slamming their fists into his face. The Hyūga wailed in pain, trying to squirm away from them, but find it impossible.

The real Naruto, who stood over Neji, looked impassively at him. "My clones have glued themselves to the ground. You're not going to be moving anytime soon."

"We will see about that." Neji growled, "Maybe you should take _me _seriously!" And then the clones were blown back by an invisible wave of chakra. The clones flew and exploded into clouds of white smoke, popping when they hit the ground.

It was an experimental technique Neji had been working on for the past month. Much like he knew his clan had the ability to expel chakra from their tenketsu, Neji learned the ability didn't stop at their hands or feet. His opponent had been so busy talking and giving him a "scary" look, that he didn't even guard himself. He saw the Jūken before, and knew they could use their hands to expel chakra, but the idiot didn't count on him being able to expel them Neji had relished in the surprised look Naruto had gave him, before jumping back to his feet and speeding off to the now retreating Naruto.

He closed the distance easily and slammed a powerful palm into his chest, spreading chakra through him to damage his internal organs. That would be enough to stop Naruto, he was sure. Much to his anger however, he hit nothing but a clone, and watched it explode into smoke. He growled, wondering where the hell was the real Naruto while holding his now burning jaw. Now, things were to be taken seriously, and Neji had little use for taunting the boy now. Not only was it not working like he wanted to, but he had almost lost to the urchin! _'I swear he's not getting the drop on me again.'_

Neji was feeling paranoia settle in, as he scanned the field for Naruto Uzumaki. So far, his opponent had eluded him, and has been sending clone after clone to him, never attacking him head on himself. Much to Neji's horror, he couldn't tell which Naruto was the real one. Each one of the clones – he had some time peering into their chakra systems with his Byakugan – had exactly the same amount of chakra, and the Naruto that was standing in front of him before had had the exact same amount of chakra that they had. His kekkai genkai would do nothing to help him here, except anticipate where they were coming.

But he wondered something more horribly as a thought came on. _'Those clones… they came out of the ground, and he has already shown his earth affinity. What if… he has the ability to travel underground?' _That made sense to him, as he legitimately did not see the clone from the underground who popped him once in the chin coming. His eyes couldn't do much to help him. He couldn't scan the entire battlefield's grounds – even if the Byakugan could see through it. His opponent could be hiding anywhere. Another horrifying thought came to his head, and he wondered if Naruto could track him as well. Another thing that made sense, because Naruto's clone knew exactly where he was, and where to strike his chin. If that was the case, then that would make things more complicated and more a problem to deal with.

He didn't know how many clones Naruto could make, but he seen how much chakra the guy had, and it astounded him. The **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **was not like the normal **Bunshin no Jutsu** where it made incorporeal, immovable clones that served as a distracting illusion, instead of an actual attack. These clones were solid, could move, could attack, and could act for themselves without any sort of interference. Plus, they were an exact copy of their creators, down to their chakra levels. That could not take a small amount of chakra to make – at all. That meant, Naruto could have several clones who – if his theory was correct – travel underground while tracking his opponent, and never have to show up to actually fight.

Neji couldn't help but sober up. His once superior attitude towards the Uzumaki had dried up, and he was feeling some sort of fear well up inside of him. Neji did not have a lot of tools to help him in this match, and he doubted he could outlast his opponent. All he could really do was wait until Naruto came in, and approached him – which was looking like more and more of a dumb idea to do, and his blond-haired opponent was proving to be less and less dumb than he looked.

Neji, for the first time in life in battle, didn't know what he could do to win. Which meant something he had only one option left. Neji sighed, swallowed his pride, and held a hand up. "Shiranui-san," he started addressing the proctor who was looking coolly in his direction, "I forfe-"

But before Neji could finish those words, he yelped as he was dragged underground by a pair of hands, his head being the only thing above the dirt. Naruto's black sandals came into picture, and Neji watched a fist made of _rock _fly to his face.

Darkness followed for Neji only after that.

Naruto walked back, feeling strange as he walked back up to the Fighter's Booth, listening to the crowd's loud cheering but barely registering it. Huh. That match was… "disappointing" was the word for it, he supposed. Neji had _really _never been able to touch him at all in that fight. Like, really. Sure, he got his clones, but that was only because Naruto had allowed him to do so. Even when he thought he caught Neji before, all it took was switching with an underground clone – which he had created since the beginning of the match – with **Kawirimi no Jutsu** and Neji was none the wiser. Then after the clone had been "killed", Neji stood there, like a sitting duck.

Naruto scratched his head. Victory was his, but Neji hadn't even put up much of a fight for him, surprisingly. Maybe all that worry about him for the past month was all for nothing, eh? Ah well, he was sure he done pretty well enough to impress the judges, Naruto was sure, and even if he didn't, he was going to the next round against whoever won the next fight. Naruto was sure he would be getting a newer match to show off some more of his skills.

That, he could count on.

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N: **And so, I finally finished the chapter. Sorry it took a while but I was trying to see what I could do for this match. Sorry if it felt "anti-climatic", but I realized that Neji had – just like in _Stop The Future – _had a really bad match-up against Naruto. Neji's Byakugan can't do much for him, Naruto knows how to abuse his **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**, and if Naruto can hide underground, what the hell is Neji going to _really _do? So, I decided to cut it down. The original version was shorter – mind you – but it was even more "anti-climatic". Ah well.

Finally, I am quite sorry that this seems MUCH shorter than the last chapter, but I wanted to set the story's background first, and then get to the action. It may seem like a lot of talk – and it was – but I did want to shape Naruto's training a bit before going into the exams. Don't worry, we got more things ahead of you. Unlike _Stop The _Future, I quite want to be finished with the exams Already. So, up next: the next part of the Chūnin Exams and (hopefully) the beginning of the Konoha Crush arc!

Note: I'm thinking about just having this story's genre "Adventure" instead of Adventure/Humor since the "humor" aspect has not REALLY clicked in as of yet.

**Translation List:**

Doton: Kengan no Jutsu – Earth Release: Fist Rock Technique

**Technique List:**

Earth Release: Rainfall of Stone (Doton: Ishi no Kōu) – The user shoots several rocks from the sky. The more chakra added, the larger these rocks get, to the point they become boulders. The smallest of chakra added can create a "rainfall" of rocks, hence the name of the technique.

Rank: C

Technique Class: Offensive

Type/Classification: Ninjutsu

Hand Seals: Snake → Bird → Snake

Range: Short-range

Users: Ebisu, Naruto Uzumaki, Jiraiya


	6. VI

Disclaimer: I owe you guys two disclaimers because I didn't do in the last chapter. Question: Do we still to do these things? I just do them in the spirits of things (and to make it seem like it's more words in this story than really is). I mean, I think everyone on this site knows we don't own any of the series we write about. We're just a bunch of people who love to write and write about our favorite characters doing shit we don't see in our shows, or whatever goes off in own heads listed as "canon."

Ah, well. You know me though; I still don't own _Naruto_.

(Else I probably wouldn't be doing this shit.)

(But I probably would anyway.)

* * *

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 6_

_**Before the beginning of Naruto Uzumaki's match with Neji Hyūga…**_

Sakura Haruno sat next to her part-time friend/part-time rival for Sasuke Uchiha's affection, Ino Yamanaka, feeling somewhat anxious. It had been a month since the Preliminaries, and both of them were at each others' throats – literally. Now, both of them were sitting together at the stadium, waiting for their friends to come out, and to cheer them on. She found herself feeling bored, and lonely, without the presence of her teammates. Sasuke, she could understand, and even missing Naruto – although he was a headache – felt normal these days. Of course, she would never voice that – lest Naruto think she was starting to like him or something perverted like that. Boys.

Not being in the tournament meant she didn't have much to do this month, and she didn't see her team at all. No missions since Kakashi-sensei was devoting his time training Sasuke, and Naruto was getting his training… somewhere. Sakura really didn't know any of the details really of either of their training, and she admitted she was worried more so for Naruto than Sasuke since Sasuke was getting training from Kakashi (and Sasuke-kun was already a fantastic shinobi anyway). She didn't like to admit it, but she was worried about Naruto. Hopefully, he was getting some good amount of training somewhere in the village.

Sakura didn't know much about Neji Hyūga, but she knew that he was a strong shinobi. Much to her disgust when she saw it, Neji beat the hell out of his supposed cousin, Hinata Hyūga, in a pretty damned one-sided match-up. As much as Naruto annoyed her at times, she didn't want to see the blond get beaten down like that. She hoped Naruto was smart enough to swallow his pride, quit when he had the chance, and not end up hurt.

But being on Naruto's team for half a year, she was used to his habits and personality. He was stubborn, impulsive, hard-headed, and wouldn't give up without giving his opponents hell. It was stupid… but admirable, and the way he cheered on Hinata in the last part of the Chūnin Exams was endearing. He didn't even know he made Hinata fight harder in that match, did he? He even promised to defeat Neji for her too. She liked that about Naruto. No matter what, he wouldn't bow down to fear or anything like that. That stubbornness was how he was, and Sakura was slowly starting to accept him for it.

However, that stubbornness wouldn't help him in this match. She seen Neji in his match with Hinata. He was quick, powerful, and bright. Going up against Neji head-on – which Naruto was known to do so against his opponents – would be suicide. Some part of her wanted Naruto to believe that Naruto could kick Neji's ass, but a more logic side of her told her that this fight with Neji would be the end of Naruto's run in the Chūnin Exams.

Still, just like how Naruto cheered for Hinata in her match against Neji – or even with him cheering when Sakura herself fought Ino – Sakura would be cheering for her teammate.

"Hey, Sakura! Look, they're starting to come out now." Ino pointed to the fighters of the exams, excitement in her face and her voice. Ino grinned. "There's Shikamaru! Looking as lazy and depressed, as usual. God, would it kill him to be a _little exuberant_ for once?"

Sakura perked up, and watched for her teammate. She saw him and smiled a bit herself. "And there's Naruto!" She drank in his new appearance, and looked a little surprised. Naruto was wearing a black jacket, black pants, and basically wearing something newer than his usual outfit. Personally, Sakura never understood why Naruto liked his orange and blue jacket so much. It was a horrible bright shade of orange, and a terrible color for a ninja anyway. Admittedly, her ruby red blouse was pretty bright too, but still, much better than bright orange. Either way, she didn't bother voicing her opinion about it – especially when Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun had already done so for her.

Still, it looked good on Naruto. Perhaps Naruto was finally growing up.

Beyond Naruto, she quickly noticed a problem with the arena. She seen how they came down to the arena in a line. Naruto walked behind Neji, Shikamaru walked behind the girl from the sand, and the puppet user walked behind Shino, but Sasuke-kun's opponent – Gaara of Sunagakure – was lagging behind everyone. Sasuke was not there, and it worried her.

Ino voiced her worry first however. "Where's Sasuke-kun at? He's supposed to be down there!"

Sakura shook her hair, muttered a "I don't know", and returned her vision to the arena. She had that nagging desire to throttle Kakashi-sensei in his throat when she saw him. If Kakashi-sensei somehow got Sasuke-kun disqualified because of his laziness…

A few minutes of the announcer…. Um, "announcing" the semi-finalists, it was declared the first match would be Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyūga. Ino was with the rest of the crowd, vocally cheering, but Sakura said a small prayer for Naruto to herself. "Good luck, Naruto."

Ino must have saw her, because she ended up smiling in her direction. "Hey, I think Naruto's got this. Don't worry. That knucklehead's got to kick that Neji's ass after what he did to Hinata, right?"

Sakura wasn't so convinced though, and Ino's tone of voice also hinted the same thing. Nevertheless, she smiled back. "Right," she said to her rival/friend, and turned her attention to the stadium's arena, where Naruto and Neji would be fighting for the next few minutes.

* * *

_**After Naruto's match with Neji…**_

"..."

"Did that…?"

"Mmmhmm…"

"And Neji just..."

"Mmmhmm..."

"But Naruto just…!"

"Mmmhmmm..."

"Huh." Was the appropriate response from Sakura Haruno, as both her and Ino fell into contemplative silence.

_Well, that match was sure, um, "convincing"_, Sakura thought to herself as she pulled the jaw back up, as well her hanging tongue. She watched Naruto basically destroy Neji in the match, never once getting touched. While she cheered him on like Ino, quite honestly she believed it would come down to the wire, or even Naruto would lose.

However, the universe decided that today, Naruto was to beat the guy who was arguably one of the strongest genin in the preliminaries from last month and with elemental ninjutsu no less. She and Ino were looking like gaping fish out of water when they saw rocks fly towards Neji's head, and when clones started coming from underground, it was nothing short of amazing to her. According to what she learned from her books and in school, one learning their elemental affinity and mastering it took quite a while, maybe even years, but Naruto had managed to do so in one _month_. Who the hell was this new Naruto, and where did he come from?

If Naruto could do all of that, she could only imagine how much Sasuke had grown over the month in terms of strength and speed as well. She had a feeling that both of her teammates were going to have green vests by the end of the day.

She smiled.

* * *

Ebisu had been to the Chūnin Exams many times in his career as a shinobi. Once as a genin, several times as a chūnin but many times when he was a jōnin. Mostly as a spectator, but in the rare one he was a proctor himself. There had been only a few times he had seen a few matches end so quickly. He had counted how many minutes the match went on. It came up to five on his watch.

It only took four minutes for Naruto to defeat Neji Hyūga in battle. Using the element of surprise and turning his opponent's arrogance against him. Naruto had seemed to do the impossible. Defeating one of the most strongest genin in the exams was no easy feat. And most of the crowd didn't know what to do. However, he heard some claps, applause. A yell here, a "Woo! Atta boy, Naruto!" there. Pretty soon, the crowd came more to life and a polite round of applause began. Ebisu was one of the many who clapped too.

And faces from his peers were delicious. Asuma looked gobsmacked with his jaw slacked and tongue hanging out; Kurenai looked similar, but after she recovered, Ebisu could make out a very small smile on her face. Perhaps she was grateful Naruto smacked – literally – some sense into Neji. After all, the Hyūga boy did almost kill her student last month.

Ebisu personally enjoyed Gai's – the sensei of Neji Hyūga's – reaction after Neji's nasty beat down by Naruto. Gai downright _cheered _that Naruto won. Ebisu himself kept smiling, very pleased with himself. This was all because of his doing. The reason why this happened was because of his teachings, not anyone else. Not even Kakashi. He gave himself a mental pat on the shoulder because _he_ created that potentially dangerous Earth Release user down there. He did that.

* * *

Naruto walked to the Fighter's Booth, the place he was assigned to stay in until he was called to fight. He found himself in a conversation with Shikamaru Nara, who gave Naruto an amused smirk.

"Not bad, idiot. Seems like you aren't dead-last anymore."

"Heh. Thanks."

"Earth Release, huh? Not bad actually. I didn't see that one coming."

"Yeah, neither did Neji." _In more than one way_, Naruto thought to himself with a chuckle. "So who's next?"

"Sasuke vs. that scary Gaara guy." Shikamaru drawled, putting his hands on his head. "But Sasuke hadn't shown up yet. You know they have every right to disqualify Sasuke, right?"

Naruto frowned but nodded nonetheless. The proctor had already went over the rules when they were lined up down, showing them off to the crowd. Each match had a five minute break in between. If one of the contestants did not show up in that period of time, they would be disqualified. He didn't know why Sasuke was still not here – and if he had any sort of inkling, it was more than likely Kakashi's fault – but he did know if Sasuke didn't show up soon, he would be knocked out of the tournament by default.

"I hope he comes soon." Naruto expressed with a slight sigh.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Hey, maybe." He didn't seem like he cared either way.

_"Attention: due to the decision made by the Hokage, the second match between Gaara of Sunagakure versus Sasuke Uchiha of Konohagakure will be moved to the fourth slot of the first round of the tournament." _This announcement came to the claps and loud cheers of the audience. It seemed like a lot of people came here to see Sasuke and Gaara fight. The proctor (Genma, if Naruto remembered correctly) who was on the megaphone that almost couldn't be heard by the screaming crowd. "_Therefore, will __Shino Aburame of Konohagakure and Kank__ū__ro of Sunagakure move to the arena?" _

Due to the Fighter's Booth looming right over the stadium's arena, Naruto watched clearly as a figure in black – some chūnin in black – flashed into existence, approached Genma, and apparently whisper something into his ear, because Genma started nodding a bit.

Then after a few seconds and a final nod from the bandana-wearing proctor, Genma picked up his megaphone again. _"Attention: another update has happened in our schedule__d__ match. Kank__ū__ro of Sunagakure has forfeited his match with Shino Aburame of Konohagakure. The winner by the default is Shino Aburame." _The crowd interrupted with boos and jeers. People started protested in shouts and screams. They didn't sound like they were happy.

Genma patiently waited for a minute until the people settled down a little bit before announcing something again on his megaphone. "_The next scheduled match is Shikamaru Nara of Konohagakure versus Temari of Sunagakure. Both fighters have five minutes to make it to the arena. Thank you for your time!"_

"Well, it looks like your match is next. Knock her out, will ya, Shika?"

Shikamaru's lips moved to make a large frown. "Hey, why the hell is my match next? Move my match last, not the guy who's late to this thing. What kind of favoritism crap is this? And why did that puppet guy come all the way here, just to forfeit to his opponent without the match starting? Man, this sucks."

Naruto shrugged at him this time, though happy that Sasuke had a chance to compete in the tournament. "A ninja must be prepare for anything. That's one of the first lessons we learned back in the Academy. Isn't that what a ninja is supposed to do, instead of whining about things?"

"Shut up, Naruto." Shikamaru glared at him. Naruto noted the lack of a witty response from the lazy-looking Nara.

Naruto smirked in a small little victory, and patted Shikamaru on his shoulder. "Don't fret, guy. After all, you'll do fine in your match. You're going to kick that girl's butt."

"Hmph, yeah right." A female voice rang out, interrupting the conversation between the two Konoha shinobi. Temari walked past them as she taunted Shikamaru, giving a contemptuous glare towards the younger boys. "You don't have a chance, Nara. I'll blow you away."

"Tch, troublesome. Why did you have to say that all out loud, Naruto?" Shikamaru groaned. "Now I'm going to have to work hard."

"What? You didn't planto work hard at all?" Naruto felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

Shikamaru grunted out a response. "I _planned _to come from this unscathed. Maybe even quit after the first ten minutes."

Naruto was about to scream at the boy for not wanting to fight to best of his ability, but stopped, thought about it for a bit, and realized what Shikamaru was saying... Would probably get him much closer to becoming a chūnin. "You know, maybe you're not as lazy as I thought. That's a good strategy."

"Huh?" asked Shikamaru, who, for once, stumped – by _Naruto_ of all people. "What strategy?"

Naruto knowingly chuckle and patted his former classmate on the shoulder. "Good luck, Shika."

Shikamaru frowned – more so out of Naruto leaving him confused than the nickname. or even the too familiar pat on the shoulder. The only one who could confuse him like that was his own father, who was eons worldlier and smarter than him. However, when proctor Genma Shiranui called for him and Temari to come down to the arena to begin their match, he opted to go, instead of paying Naruto's words any mind.

Watching Shikamaru's match was interesting. Instead of being extremely fast like Naruto's had been, Shikamaru's match easily went past the supposed ten minutes Shikamaru said he would participate in. Shikamaru and Temari's fight involved both of them not trying to get caught by anything the other person was attempting to do. Both of them played the mid-to-long range game, and didn't want to get close to one another. Finally, due to some complex plan, Shikamaru created using nearby objects and the position of the Sun to get to Temari from a long distance, and to get his shadow to pin down hers, Shikamaru had the opponent in his hands.

And then let her go, crying out he had nothing to hit her with, that he was running out of chakra and there was no point to keep trying since she was a more superior opponent. If Shikamaru wasn't just being a lazy-ass, Naruto knew it had been the right decision for Shikamaru too. Even if he was just being lazy, no one else knew, and it looked good on the Nara's part. Iruka-sensei was right: if you wanted to be a chūnin, you needed to know your limits and be responsible for not only yourself, but for a team you would be serving on.

Out on the field, in the real world, doing risky decisions like fighting when you know you can't, was not only stupid but costly. If you were fighting a superior enemy that you could defeat, that was great. If not, it was better to retreat – why risk your life in a battle if your mission objective wasn't to die? And their mission for the Chūnin Exams was not to kill, or to die, or even to really win fights. Their mission at the Chūnin Exams was to get promote, to show their skills, to show the judges they knew how to think and act like a chūnin.

If anyone was going to be promoted here, it would be Shikamaru – without any doubt.

However, now that the match was over, and the proctor was now calling for the Sasuke and Gaara match to start in five minutes, Naruto's earlier concerns came back full force. He was hoping Sasuke would show up. "Where the hell is that guy? Kakashi-sensei is definitely to be blamed for this, I just know it."

After five minutes, Genma made a new announcement. _"Attention: due to tardiness from Sasuke Uchiha of Konohagakure, the winner of the match is Gaara of Sunagakure."_ That led to a lot of outcries, boos, and jeers from the crowd.

"Oh shit..."

Then the proctor announced the next match.

_"Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure vs Temari of Sunagakure! To the arena in five minutes!"_

* * *

Naruto reviewed his findings of Temari in his head for a brief moment. The girl from Suna was a Wind Release user – and a pretty scary user too. If he got caught by one of her tornadoes, he was toasted. He also could not let her get any distance. That Tenten girl got a taste of that back in the Preliminaries.

Naruto had to get as closely as he could to the girl without getting thrown around like a rag doll. He could finish her off with taijutsu. He had a gut feeling she relied too heavily on her fan and her wind attacks. Take the fan away from her, and she would have to stick to fighting with her hands. He had an idea on how to make her get away from her fan. Of course, he had to be sneaky.

And sneaky Naruto excelled in.

As the proctor started to call for the match, Naruto made two clones underneath him underground, as Temari herself opened her metal fan and prepared for combat. As the proctor moved away from them, Temari already tried blowing Naruto back with a wind release technique. Naruto had no time to actually dodge it and so, wisely performed **Kawirimi **with a clone underground. Not what he originally planned but it was sure convenient that he had an easy "switch-a-roo" technique. Switching with clones always came in handy.

As he received his clones memories, watching the tornado decimate his clone, he performed the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **and had the clone appear on top of his position as a decoy and to create more clones on ground. Ebisu had showed him that trick with his shadow clones. Naruto could – if he properly directed his chakra in the right way – make clones wherever the hell he wanted, adding another positive property to his beloved **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**.

Next, Naruto decided to create a squad of ten clones to act as more decoys for him, while he found his way to Temari. He had a plan that – if it worked – would make short work of Temari. Watching Shikamaru's match with her made him realize that Temari hated any sort of close combat with her opponents, and she made it her mission to get away to spam powerful wind release techniques. Every clone that popped, Naruto received its memories. One clone even gotten close enough to Temari to see her face – a creepy smile had been on her face as she swung her fan at the clone and "killed" him with a bit of her wind chakra.

That girl was having too much fun for Naruto. He shivered a bit.

Finally, Temari threw summoned a large tornado on the battlefield, and threw it at the Naruto clones up at the surface. Her tornado swallowed up many of the clones, obliterating his once army on ground. However Naruto was far from perturbed, glad it actually happened. Now that all of her targets were no longer pursuing her, she would realize he wasn't even there, and she would be on her guard. Waiting for him to come to her. She must have figured he had the ability to go underground by now, right?

Naruto created another clone at his side, and Naruto gestured it to go topside and distract Temari once again. "Engage her in taijutsu and I'll take care of the rest." Naruto whispered. They were directly under her at this point.

The clone nodded and plopped out of the ground, to attack Temari. The sand girl, whose reaction wasn't fast enough, got hit by a punch and staggered away. The real Naruto moved slightly underground, and was again directly under her. Temari, at that instant, recovered and slugged the clone with a good punch, while holding her fan like a crutch as it stood tall on the ground.

While this was all going on, Naruto peeked his head out the ground, placed his hand to the surface, and then raised said hand to touch Temari's fan. Then, applying a generous amount of chakra to it, Naruto's technique was finally completed. No more will Temari be able to shoot wind ninjutsu all over the place against him. All of this was because of chakra flow. The right amount of earth chakra would augment a weapon. The wrong amount – too much – would make the chosen item heavy enough to have a hard time to lift or worse, become damaged. That meant it would be nigh-useless, and in this situation, it would work wonders.

With the deed being done, he was now free to come up to the surface completely. Temari couldn't do anything now. He moved a few feet away from her, and then rose from the ground with a smirk on his face. Temari saw him, tried raising her fan, but found it that she could not, because the fan had become ten times the weight it originally was. Oh, the joys of having an earth affinity.

Temari struggled to get it up, confused on why it felt so heavy. She made a straining noise, which became confused, and ultimately, it then became frightened. She then opted to abandoning the fan, as it dropped and slammed into the ground like a bag of bricks, and moved away. As she was doing that, Naruto approached in swiftly, and swung at her with her with a fist right at the chin. Temari barely guarded against it, but it proved to be a bad idea – the bones of her forearm groaning in protest.

She managed to move away, and couldn't help but growl in frustration. "What did you do to my fan?"

"Oh, you noticed? I just made it useless. I seen how you fought before. You rely on your fan to use wind attacks, right?" Naruto rhetorically questioned, already summoning two clones under his opponent. He was just making idle conversation now.

"You… wait, you have access to… earth techniques, right? You used it to make my fan heavier..." She was starting to sweat bullets. The Sunagakure girl had realized she had made a huge mistake allowing Naruto to get any close to her, and, after a few seconds, realized she made a worse one when she didn't move and chose to stand there gawking in awe.

Hands grabbed her from the underground, and she yelped in surprise and fear as most of her body was dragged underground, her chin nearly slamming into the ground itself. She watched as Naruto walked up to her in a brisk pace, seen him crouch, and felt a kunai on her throat. "Surrender," he stated. "You're finished."

She sucked her teeth, knowing when she was beat. "Dammit. Alright, I forfeit."

"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!" The proctor called out from a few feet away.

Naruto grinned and preened as the crowd cheered him on. Temari growled, looking as Naruto started to dance around like a little kid in the arena. "Hey, idiot! Get me out of here already!"

Naruto obviously heard her cry, and smirked. "Why? It's not like you can do anything to get out of it. Ask nicely, and maybe I'll get you out of there."

She heatedly stared at him, and then frowned at the male proctor from Konoha. "H-Hey, can't you get me out?"

"Hmm, maybe, though the kid is on to something here. What's the magic word that will get you out of there?"

Temari's face heated up in embarrassment and anger. She stared at the ground for a few seconds before mumbling out a "please." Thankfully, Naruto heard her, and she was released. Naruto smiled at her, and said, "Good fight," before leaving.

Temari huffed, but begrudgingly acknowledged the guy actually beat her. Despite the dopey look, and matching smile, the little brat was actually pretty clever. A strategist maybe? She could at least respect that.

She supposed she shouldn't be too mad. After all, in a little bit, Sunagakure would be getting the last laugh in on Konohagakure.

* * *

"_Winner: Gaara of Sunagakure!"_

Naruto watched, cringing as the match between Gaara and Shino Aburame – Naruto's former classmate and fellow countryman – finally came to a close. It was a fast, nasty match up that lasted a lackluster few minutes before Shino decided to forfeit smartly.

First, Shino's fighting style was a stationary style where he sent his insects at the enemy and drain them of their chakra. However, Gaara – whose fighting style relied also on not moving much and staying in place – never needed to lift a finger. It was the very same defense sand technique that Gaara had done against Lee – a technique that Naruto couldn't figure out yet, and it was scaring him since he was up against Gaara next. Shino's bugs couldn't even touch Gaara; not with that sand shield popping up every time. Every time Shino sent a cloud of bugs at Gaara, it was like seeing a bunch of flies being squished with a fly swatter at high speed. Shino also seemed to have nothing better than that, which was a shame. Naruto thought it was a good idea to just give up.

And he did, but almost gotten killed when Gaara decided – even after the match was announced to be over – that the battle wasn't over yet, and sent a blast of sand at him, and wrapped him in sand, ready to crush him. It took three jōnin and the threat of the proctor Genma to get Gaara disqualified, and imprisoned if Shino was killed. Gaara looked angry – angry at them stopping him from killing Shino! While killing was allowed in the match, it became illegal again after the proctor announced the match to have concluded. Gaara was willing to kill, and for what? That honestly unnerved the blond teen, and Naruto was fighting the psychotic Suna shinobi next.

It was funny, really. Naruto had feared very few times in his life. His first time in actual battle had been against his former traitorous teacher, Mizuki, but Naruto's anger had been ten times stronger than being scared of dying. Then those missing-nin brothers who attacked Naruto and his team, when he thought Kakashi-sensei was killed by them, he feared then. Every other time, his anger had clouded away that fear. When he seen that if they didn't help Kakashi-sensei when he was captured by Zabuza Momochi – the former missing-nin of Kirigakure – they would surely die, Naruto didn't let fear control him. Then, he thought back when Naruto and Sasuke were fighting Haku, and he thought Sasuke was killed by the Ice Release user. Naruto was livid, instead of frightful for his existence being extinguished. Even against Orochimaru, who was leagues stronger than anyone he ever fought in his life. He was angry, and that anger drove him to try, even if it turned out to be bad in the end. The fights he won and lost had always taught him a lesson: if he was still breathing, if he was still able to walk, the experience made him a little more stronger than before. That's how he always carried himself in this life: throwing caution in the wind.

But Gaara, as he felt his cold, teal eyes penetrate his heart, Naruto never felt the desire to run more than now. That aura he gave was murderous, like if he wanted to (or could), Gaara would slaughter everyone in this stadium, and that included him. It was at that moment Naruto actually thought running away would be preferably. Yes, because that's what Shino did, right? He retreated. It was the logical choice. It wasn't the most exciting, yes, but the smartest choice, the most logical. Shikamaru had retreated as well too, after he figured out his chakra was getting low – or whatever lame excuse Shikamaru had come up with it, because it didn't matter whether or not he was lying. He still got his chance to shine, and he looked like he was going to be promoted. It sucked that Shino didn't get that chance against Kankūro to fight, because he did have potential to also make chūnin. Both were calm, cool-headed, and would do excellent in battle. They thought things through before executing anything.

It was something Naruto secretly admired about both of them, and wanted to emulate. He wanted to stop being such a kid, and grow up a little, get a little respect for what he's doing and what's he trying to do. He could remember the days of being in school, people laughing at him for wanted to follow his heart, and become a Hokage. Admittedly, he was stupid for wanting that because he wanted to be respected, but as time grew, it became more than that. He wanted to have people's respect, yes, but he wanted people to count on him, their loyalty, their hearts, their minds, their… love. He wanted to protect the people he had come to care for, he wanted their love, and wanted them to be proud of him. All he was doing now, was trying to make the first step.

Did the first step lie in just admitting he might not have what it takes to kick Gaara's ass? He needed to know. He needed to see for himself. He believed he could, and he wouldn't give up without a fight. For once in his life, he was hoping to feel indignant, rowdy, angry – just like how it been against Mizuki, Zabuza, Haku, and Orochimaru. However, he felt nothing but fear, nervousness, and wondering if it would be just easier to give up.

"_This is it, folks! This is the grand finals! Will Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure and Gaara of Sunagakure please come to the stadium arena?" _The proctor yelled over his megaphone. Naruto flinched, realizing the five minutes were up.

He peered down in the arena, and saw Gaara down there, seemingly still there since his last battle. Naruto again felt Gaara's predatory stare look up at him. He heard the crowd scream, and he could swear he could hear a voice or two yell "Naruto!" He wanted to believe it was his friends cheering (Sakura, his former classmates, maybe even Kakashi-sensei, and Sasuke if they finally made it).

Naruto's fists tightened, and he gritted his teeth.

...No. He couldn't quit now. He wanted their respect, their loyalty – all of these people. Quitting now wouldn't do him any favors, until he sized up Gaara, and seen how his abilities stacked up to Naruto's. He grunted, wiped tears from his face, sniffed, and walked down those damn stairs. Fuck Gaara, and his scary little face. Fuck the people who thought he couldn't do this. He would prove them wrong. Dead wrong. Even if he didn't find a way to beat Gaara, he was not going to quit, because goddammit, that was his ninja way.

Unlike with Neji, there was no taunting. Unlike with Temari, there was no superior looks and arrogance on his opponent's face. Gaara wanted nothing more but blood from him. Naruto didn't give two shit's about anything the proctor was saying at the moment; shadow clones were created underground under his feet, moving all around the battlefield. No one would know, and the proctor didn't seem to flinch as Naruto did it. He needed to set up before the battle truly started. Gaara would not move from his spot. He never will. Naruto had to use that to his advantage. Perhaps overwhelming that shield with so many attacks at once from all angles would stop Gaara from doing anything, and allow Naruto a hit in.

No, wait, hold on, he would need more. Naruto remembered Rock Lee from last month, when he hit Gaara, the guy had sand cover his whole body not only acting as a second skin, but actually as armor. Naruto would need a lot more than simply overwhelming Gaara's shield. Breaking the armor underneath would prove even more of a challenge. It looked like he was heavily relying on his **Doton: Moguregakure no Jutsu **in this fight.

"Begin!"

Naruto made the first move, summoning some shadow clones, and giving them the signal to move. They moved it, and quickly gotten destroyed by a wave of sand that acted like a tentacle, swinging and destroying the clones, leaving nothing but smoke. Naruto wasted no time, and went underground. He already figured it wouldn't do much anyway. More clones were then created from his chakra – more distractions for Gaara.

On top, rocks rained from the heavens, ready to crush the Sunagakure shinobi, but after getting memories from a clone who was killed right afterward, Gaara's sand only formed a shield, and then after the rocks disappeared, sent sand shaped like _bullets _at the clones. Shit. Things were not going his way, and he had a nasty belief that there was no reason to go under Gaara and pull him under, since his shield protected him.

Actually, going underground was not safe for him anymore, as a tentacle of sand ripped through the dirt he was in. He yelped, as more and more tentacles came his way. He exited the dirt immediately, and found himself again on the defensive as Gaara sent a burst of sand at him, as if the gourd on his back belched it up. Naruto couldn't dodge it, and for the first time in this whole day, he felt himself getting hit.

He was blown back by the attack, his back hitting ground harshly. He roared out in pain, hissing as he tried clawing some of the sand out his eyes, and hacking up any spare sand that got in his mouth.

Gaara made no move to pursue the fallen Naruto, opting to instead look at him with folded arms and cold sea green eyes. The first time since this match started, Gaara spoke up. He rasped out nastily, "Pitiful. Is this all you can do? Shoot out rocks and hide in the dirt? Run and hide back into your little hole, pest." A cloud made of sand then loomed over Naruto ominously. "I shall end your suffering soon."

Naruto knew exactly what that meant, and tried out a newer technique he learned from Ebisu-sensei. Without announcing it, he performed the **Shunshin no Jutsu** and moved across the battlefield, barely missing raining death; bullets made out of sand pelted the space he once occupied. He stopped near the wall of the stadium, letting go of a breath of air he didn't even know he had. Gaara was incredibly deadly, and Naruto had to find some way to beat him, before the redhead killed him.

Naruto summoned more clones, filling his area with ten newer bodies of himself, already having a plan in mind. The **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **was one of the greatest techniques to man. It might been embellishment, but he felt it was a true. Not only it was useful for swarming enemies with cloned bodies of himself, and also as a training tool, but everything on Naruto's person. Naruto had come prepared for the exams; kunai, shuriken, and other various miscellaneous tools he had at his disposal. Naruto had thought to himself that he might as well get his clones to make use of all this "overabundance" of weaponry on Gaara. You could call it in shades of that one technique that Tenten girl used in the preliminaries of the Chūnin Exams.

He signaled his clones to ready their weapons, as he done the same. The rings of eight kunai on each of his fingers, he held them up to his face, gritting his teeth. If this didn't work, he didn't know what would. _'__That sand is stopping every change I can get to hit him. I need to stop it somehow. Perhaps… __I can get past that defense. If I can make it so he can't defend an attack from all directions, it won't work for him__.'_

Then they charged. Each clone moved away from each other, in an effort to cover Gaara at a circle. The redhead shinobi stared impassively back at him and his clones, not making any sort of move to move. Sand started gathering around Gaara. He was that sure of his abilities, huh? Naruto couldn't wait to wipe that superior look off his face. Naruto considered his distance, and judged (hoped) that it was at a good distance to not get hit himself. He lowered his hands from his face – the clones all around mirroring his every action – then he threw them in back of his head, bent slightly, and chucked them forward. Like he thought, the sand from Gaara's gourd came up, in an effort to protect him.

But it wouldn't matter.

Some of his clones went towards Gaara, which the sand raised up to smack them away like flies. Those clones weren't armed with kunai however, and Naruto and the rest of the clones with kunai threw them at Gaara. Normal kunai probably would have done nothing to Gaara, but these kunai weren't all regular.

Naruto's clone technique copied _everything _on his person, and today, he was carrying things he didn't think he would really need but decided it was better safe that sorry. He was carrying a few tags on him – exploding tags.

Usually, since they were dangerous when either lit or primed with chakra, exploding tags were expensive in Konohagakure. Three strips of paper cost at least a few hundred ryō; a whole roll cost _thousands_. Normally, he had a few strips of paper on him if he could afford it. However, he didn't make a habit of buying them. A few days ago, he decided he needed some, and got a few. They were coming in handy, if he did say so himself.

On the eight kunai each clone was carrying, two kunai had been wrapped an already primed tag. Ten clones times two kunai rigged to explode equaled one barbequed Gaara – and it should break that barrier easily enough. He doubted any sort of barrier could tank a bombardment of explosions like Naruto planned. Gaara also was making no move to do anything about it, except defend, so Naruto would definitely have his way, he was sure.

As soon as he thrown the eight kunai, he moved, hoping to get away if need be. A chain of explosions rocked the area Gaara was in, and Naruto seen a gout of fire and black smoke fly freely into the air. Naruto expected a scene in front of him to be

When the smoke cleared, Gaara was seen again, a dome of sand holding around him before crumbling around him, and that put killed any sort of hope Naruto had to win this match. This guy… was _unreal_. He actually survived a bunch of explosions at once-

Naruto found his thoughts could not be finished as danger descended upon him. Seconds later, and sand rained down on him from the skies without warning. He went to move, but found himself that he could not, finding sand pooling at his feet, keeping him anchored to the ground. Naruto yelled out in pain as lumps of sand hit him in all parts of his body. The assault finished, and Naruto found himself on the ground. Sand then started covering him from head to toe. Gaara approached slowly.

"I despise exploding tags..." The redhead hissed.

"H-How? Why didn't you-" He was soon interrupted by the unhinged Suna shinobi.

"You, you and that damn Yashamaru are both the same in your cowardly methods. Instead of fighting me directly, you choose the sneaky and unhanded way. Killing me with exploding tags will not work. I will not die here!"

Naruto didn't know who was Gaara referencing to, and didn't care. He was going to die. Naruto was going to die because he was too proud and too stupid to give up. Ebisu-sensei was right – Gaara was on a different level than him. He should have gave up a long time ago. And now, not only was he going to lose the match, but he wasn't going to ever fight another person again in his life…

Naruto then remembered something crucial: he had left a few clones underground in the off-chance he needed them. Such a time was now.

"You have been a waste of my time." With one hand held up, he lifted the sand prison Naruto was now encased inside of. Gaara sneered. "Die."

"Enough!" The tournament's brown-haired proctor barked at Gaara. "The match is-

"Don't tell me what to do!" Gaara glared hatefully at the examiner, squeezing his hand down as he did so. The sand exploded, but Gaara was angered further for not being able to see his opponent's blood mixed with it. Instead, the sound of one of Naruto's clones popping sounded off.

Naruto escaped during the time the proctor and Gaara started arguing with a version of the **Kawarimi no Jutsu** that didn't involve hand seals. It was out of pure luck there.

Naruto climbed out of the underground, finding himself quite a distance from Gaara now. _For all intents and purposes, I should have died right there and then_, he fearfully panted to himself in thought. He just received the full memories of the unfortunate clone he switched with. The sand imploded on itself, and crushed the clone to bits before it was dispelled. If he got hit by that attack, there would be no coming back. That was too close, too close. He not only almost lost the fight, but his life as well.

Gaara survived a series of explosions that should have enough to put anything down. He was out of options. Something told him that trying that again would not work in his favor, and it was best to just do what Ebisu said he should do before. Naruto hated it, but he realized that he had done a lot in this tournament. He defeated Neji and Temari both in pretty decisive victories. Gaara was in a whole different league that the previous two opponents he fought. It was time to stop fighting.

"Proctor-san! I forfeit." Naruto declared quickly, without feeling an ounce regretful about it.

Genma looked pleased with such. "Winner: Gaara of Sunagakure!" The crowd then cheered loudly. "Gaara is the winner of the Chūnin Exams!"

Naruto sighed in relief. "Thank goodness… It's over."

"Good thing too." The proctor glared over in Naruto's direction. "Be glad you were able to get out of that prison technique _alive_, kid."

Gaara however did not share everyone's pleasure. "No, no! You are not supposed to quit! We are not finished yet, Uzumaki!" Much to Naruto's horror, Gaara flung away the proctor with his tail. The cheers of the crowd stalled, and Naruto heard Gaara yell out angrily to him, **"**Mother wants your blood, Uzumaki! We shall continue fighting!"

"You're insane! I gave up already!" Naruto stated, looking more alarmed as Gaara approached him slowly like a cat did to a mouse; like a lion stalking its prey.

Naruto took a breather when six ANBU stepped on the battlefield, all of them surrounding him and Gaara. "Get back, kid." One of the ANBU – a man – said to Naruto, who gladly started to move away. "Gaara of Sunagakure, for attacking a member of Konohagakure, you are hereby under arrest. Surrender or face the consequences."

Gaara snarled, then yelled out in pure anger, and perhaps a bit in pain. The disturbed boy started clutching his head. "WH-What's that, Mother?! You want their blood, _all _of their blood?! Y-yes, YES! I will give you their blood!** ALL OF THEM!**"

And then, hundreds of bullets of sand exploded from under Gaara's feet, hitting everyone near the far-gone shinobi. Naruto was lucky enough to not be anywhere near Gaara.

...Well, that settled it. Naruto need to get the _fuck _out of here. Let someone else deal with this-

He froze, and paralyzed when he felt a wave of killer intent wash over him like a flood. Naruto stiffly turned back, and found it was the wrong thing to do when spheres of sand started to stick to Gaara's figure, until he started warping into some a demonic creature. **"****And now, you're mine, Uzumaki!"**

As this went on, Naruto heard an explosion from over his head, and found a plume of white smoke in the Hokage's Booth – where the leader of Konohagakure would have been watching the match. More anarchy started in the stands themselves when he started hearing yelling and sounds of battle all around him.

All around him, the world went to shit. And no one gave him a memo warning him?

Just great.

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N: **So, Naruto just defeated Temari as well, but I had him lose to Gaara. In all honestly, I could not find a plausible way for Gaara to be defeated by Naruto. A lot of Naruto's current techniques can't really deal with Gaara, and it may be a stretch having Gaara able to stay conscious/not end up seriously injured with that explosion going off near him, but the guy fucking took a Reverse Lotus from Lee – which is said to be able to be fatal upon hit due to the sheer speed, pressure, and power of the strike – with _just _his sand shield. So, I think he can tank an explosion… or a couple.

As for people who will ask why did Sasuke not fight, I decided to change it up the canon, and make it somewhat interesting (or at least different so we don't have a repeat of the normal canon Chūnin Exams). Doesn't mean him and Kakashi won't show up soon though, because they will. Can't forget their part in the next upcoming arc. You should know what's coming. People are probably going to hate me, but eh. It's not Sasuke wanted to get promoted anyway. He just wanted to fight. I might consider rewriting the chapter over (one day) if anything.

In truth, I always hated doing the Chūnin Exams in my stories (see _Stop The Future_, and you'll see what I mean). Forgive me if it seems a little rushed, but I hate making it so long and drawn out. Kind of glad I got to skim over the exams. One of the reasons why I hate doing the Invasion/Konoha Crush arc in my stories is because usually, I feel like the matches have to be at least decent, and I, even though I have published plenty of Naruto fanfics, haven't perfected the art of action as of yet. Well, at least I'm done with it.

Next chapter will be out soon, and all that jazz.

Until then, fare thee well.


	7. VII

Disclaimer: Don't own _Naruto_. Wah!

Note: So, I decided to bump the story up to "Rated M" because the amounts of the word "fuck" that will probably show up in the future.

Not because this story is any sort of mature though.

* * *

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 7_

_**One Hour Back…**_

"So, remind me: why _aren't _we at the stadium yet, Sensei?" Sasuke Uchiha groused, hastily putting on his fully black body suit, strapping on the white buckles that adorned his arms and legs. Because training had gotten considerably brutal over the past month with Kakashi Hatake, Sasuke's favorite blue and white Uchiha Clan outfit had now too many cuts, rips and tears in the fabric.

His shorts in general probably took way too many "**Sennen Goroshi**" from Kakashi-sensei, and yes, despite the disingenuous assertions running around town, Sasuke Uchiha did _not _like people – especially _grown-ass men _– doing any sort of things near or to his ass. People took the fact that he was more focused on training, and not drooling over women or showing too unhealthy of an interest on the opposite sex, as some sort of confirmation that he was gay – and he was not. There was plenty of girls he thought were cute (Hinata, though her meekness also turned him off; Tenten, though he heard she got destroyed by that Temari chick from Sunagakure; Temari, who destroyed Tenten; that movie actress, Yukie Fujikaze; pretty much any female who wasn't in his fan club that was cute), but he was focused more on the whole "Killing my older brother because he was a bitch for killing my entire clan" part of his life. People just didn't understand.

Plus also, breaking a part his name, and emphasizing the "uke" part of his name was not funny either. Even if he did swing that way, he was definitely a seme, dammit.

Wait, why was he getting into that?

Oh yeah, because Sasuke's perverted teacher stuck _his fingers up __his__ ass before during training_! What the fuck?! Kakashi was lucky they were all considered adults in the eyes of the law due to their profession, otherwise he would definitely be seen as a child molester. Though, if he wanted to, all he had to do was get the guy arrested for sexual harassment. Lucky for the silver-haired pervert, Sasuke was kind enough to ignore it, because he _really _needed that training.

Itachi wasn't going to kill himself, after all. Or, at least Sasuke hoped that fucking weasel didn't do so, because that would just be not fair.

"So sorry, Sasuke. We ended up training so late, and we were pretty tired. I actually forgot to actually to set the alarm for us to wake up." Kakashi chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

"You're meaning to tell me that we're late because you forgot to set the alarm?" The raven-haired Uchiha growled at his teacher.

Kakashi had the gall to look sheepish. "Now, now, Sasuke. We're only about 30 minutes from the stadium. It won't take very long to get there."

"Can't we just use the **Shunshin **to get over there?" The genin groaned, the closest thing Kakashi was going to get to a childish whine from the usually stoic Sasuke.

The jōnin shook his head, lips twisting into what Sasuke thought to be under that blue mask: a smile. "And waste a portion of your chakra before you even got to fight in the tournament? Not a good idea. If anything, we can just use **Shunshin** when we get into the village in order to get to the stadium. Therefore, we can show up coolly in the arena when your match starts. I understand the necessity to be stylish, but let's do it smartly, Sasuke." After all, Kakashi himself had been doing it for years himself. Kakashi was the master of being cool.

Sasuke just made his signature "hn", effectively ending the conversation, and attached the kunai pouch to his backside, clipping on the bag to his person. Kakashi finally threw on his green flak vest, and urged his student to move from under the tanned tent they shared. The Uchiha teen then took down the tent along with Kakashi. He watched in some interest as Kakashi took a scroll out of his pocket, unraveled it, and watched it him place it near the tent. Kakashi did a half-ram hand seal, and the tent (and all of the contents inside the tent) get sucked into the scroll. Fūinjutsu was interesting to Sasuke, and it seemed to have its practical uses like creating exploding tags, making scrolls, and more. Not like he was in a hurry to learn any of it. Besides maybe making your own storage seals to carry a nearly infinite amount though, he didn't really think it served much of a purpose offensively, which Sasuke needed. He needed plenty of techniques he could use in battle. He needed to kill Itachi, no matter what, and nothing else.

Today, he was going against Gaara, supposedly one of the strongest genin in this tournament, and it put shivers down Sasuke's spine. Shivers of excitement, of course. He didn't watch the match Gaara had against Rock Lee – the guy who Sasuke was already interested in having a battle with because Rock Lee attacked him early in the tournament, and managed to get a clean hit on him. However, he did hear things about Gaara from Kakashi, that he was a formidable shinobi with the unique ability to manipulate sand to the point of making constructs like barriers, shields, and using the sand offensively in attacks. Kakashi called it an "absolute defense"; Sasuke wondered how true was that.

Nothing was absolute.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to test him newer skills against Gaara if he didn't get to the stadium in time. Sasuke and Kakashi moved briskly back into the forest leading towards Konohagakure. Kakashi said it would take 30 minutes to get there? Well, Sasuke wanted to be there in 20.

They got there, according to Kakashi's wristwatch, around 25 minutes. Not exactly too bad, and Sasuke was feeling just as energetic as he was before. They showed ID when getting to gates of Konoha, suffered a comment from one of the guards ("Weren't you supposed to be fighting today?") and they raced off to the village's stadium quickly. They both wrote off the sounds of an explosion going off as the faults of tournament participants, and missed the sounds of people yelling and scream due to them using the **Shunshin no Jutsu**. Traveling at high speeds tend to block out sounds pretty badly.

When they both appeared in the arena, both were greeted by not only their teammate, Naruto Uzumaki, flying away from being attacked by something, but a grotesque creature who looked vaguely human as it approached him. Sasuke observed the battlefield more, and saw a few people on the ground – around six people. ANBU from what it looked like. He could hear some of them groaning painfully. Some looked unconscious, or dead, for that matter. In the background, sounds of people yelling and crying were sounding off, and the boom of battle was all around the two.

Confused, Sasuke blinked, "...Wasn't there a tournament going on?"

Kakashi flinched, and snapped into action. He lifted his forehead protector that was dropping onto one of his eyes, and revealed the Sharingan (which always served to annoy Sasuke), "Sasuke, get out of here. The tournament is over – go round up some of your peers and defend the village. I'll have to deal with this."

That left Sasuke somewhat dumbfounded for a moment, as he watched Kakashi run off to deal with the roaring creature before them. Not even thinking twice, Sasuke too went after the creature who was slowly moving towards Naruto. A fire release ninjutsu came from Kakashi, and propelled itself to the creature, who howled, and turned. Sasuke looked into the beast's eyes unconsciously, and froze as a wave of killer intent washed over him. It felt like that time when they were in Nami no Kuni when they were fighting Zabuza Momochi, or when he was fighting Orochimaru in the Forest Of Death. It was the type of killer intent that made you want to soil yourself, as you stood there, paralyzed by fear, as you awaited your death.

Sasuke almost didn't register the sounds of Kakashi telling him to get back, or when a sphere of sand flew towards him. Sasuke snapped out of it last moment, dodged to the left, and threw a few shuriken towards the direction of the monster, which the metal didn't seem to slow the creature down at all. The shuriken seemed to have done nothing, as more sand spheres were sent towards the Uchiha's way.

_'Sand? Is__n't__ that my opponent's ability? __Is that thing… Gaara?__'_ Sasuke wondered in his head. Why the hell was Naruto fighting him?

Unless… Of course. Kakashi gotten Sasuke disqualified; Naruto had progressed pretty far in the exams; and now Naruto was fighting (or fought) Gaara, the only person who was using sand in this tournament. If their current situation wasn't happening, Sasuke would throttle Kakashi for getting him disqualified thanks to their lateness.

Of course, this made up for it. He could still fight, and he would do so. He was itching to try out his newer techniques anyway. So Sasuke directed the standard amount to activate his dōjutsu, started channeling chakra, and throwing up hand seals for the first technique he would use today.

* * *

Naruto groaned in pain, picking himself off the ground despite wanting to just lay down. To do that meant certain death however – something Naruto was not keen about as of this time. Today was just not his day. It sure started off fine; he had defeated two people today in the tournament, and he was close to being promoted, but now here he was, about to be killed by some sort of monster. What was Gaara? Why did he turn into that creature now rampaging across in the arena? He just dealt with the ANBU like it was nothing, like they were nothing but roaches to be stomped on.

Naruto feared be the one next, feeling Gaara nearing him like a sixth sense.

Thankfully, Kakashi-sensei chose that moment to not be a tardy-tardy McPants and shoved something electric into the shoulder of Gaara, the sand demon, who howled in pain. Naruto didn't marvel very long at the electricity pouring from Kakashi-sensei's hand as he himself moved away, and Kakashi didn't stay in place when it looked like his attack didn't do too much to Gaara. Kakashi removed his hand, and once Naruto was at a good distance, he seen the handiwork of his assigned teacher. A sizable hole was now where Gaara's shoulder should be located in that body of his.

Naruto took that to mind. _'Weapons like shuriken and kunai are useless, but elemental attacks seem to work. Got it.'_ More killer intent radiated from the sand demon, and it was so much Naruto found his knees slightly buckle as the invisible force washed itself over him, but the blond attempted to resist the feeling and kept moving.

Gaara roared belligerently, and tried slashing at Kakashi with his sharp claws, but missed as Kakashi jumped back towards Naruto's side.

"Kakashi-sensei! You finally got here!" Naruto exclaimed. "Where the hell were you guys? I ended up having to fight Gaara – or rather, this _thing_."

Kakashi acknowledged Gaara was sure as hell a "thing" now. He knew Suna may have had a jinchūriki in their village, but to have placed such a person here, as a contestant in the Chūnin Exams? Kakashi was privy on the rumor that Suna may be in cahoots with Otogakure thanks to his former connections in the ANBU but for them to be so damn brazen about it with Gaara here? If he had know already, he might not even had Sasuke fight Gaara period. Unfortunately, one of his other students in the exams had to. Thank the spirits Naruto himself seemed fine.

That meant more of a reason for Naruto to go. "Naruto, get out of here, now! Sasuke's here, and I told him to go to find some peers in the crowd to help defend the village. Go find whoever, defend the village, and when you can, get to an evacuation center. This village is under attack."

Just as his assigned teacher said that, a plume of fire flew over both of their heads, and Naruto knew Sasuke had joined the fight too. "Need some help, dead last?"

Kakashi looked irritated by Sasuke's presence, but he could do little about it as he found himself on the defensive, dodging Gaara's long-range attacks. Tentacles of sand erupted from the ground, and all three of them were forced to dodge – Kakashi and Naruto going left and Sasuke going right. Sasuke was shooting fire around occasionally, but none of the fireballs hit near the target. This wasn't going too well for the three men of Team Seven at all.

That showed when suddenly Gaara – with speed that shouldn't have been possible with his large size – flew towards them. Kakashi separated from his two students, barely evading an attack from Gaara, but he soon found that was a mistake. Instead of focusing on him, or Naruto, Gaara rushed to Sasuke and sent a knee directly into the Uchiha's stomach, sending Sasuke screaming and sprawling away far away from the fight. Although the knee looked like it did some serious damage Sasuke, it might have been a saving grace, because what they were dealing with was so far beyond a normal human target that even Kakashi was having trouble.

Gaara then appeared at Naruto's side, with superhuman speed, and the demonic figure smiled nastily at him. Naruto froze in fear. **"Now, where were we?"**

For his troubles, Naruto was the one sent flying with a swat of Gaara's arm – or that would the case if Naruto didn't make the wise choice to make a clone further away from Gaara, and use the **Kawirimi no Jutsu **with it a minute ago when he had a moment to himself. Stones rained on Gaara's head, but it seemed to not do much to him except annoy him, as the superhuman roared in agitation.

Kakashi appeared at Naruto's side swiftly. "Naruto! Go and retrieve Sasuke and leave, and I mean it. Unlike that time in Nami no Kuni, I don't want to hear anything different. This guy is _way_ above your level. Get your asses to a nearby evacuation center, now!" Naruto knew that was very true; he wouldn't be able to do much here to help his teacher anyway, instead of possibly get in his way. Then the gray-haired man joined a copy of himself in a run, heading towards Gaara – blue lighting filling their hands.

Again he did not try to stay in order to watch, trying again to move from Gaara since he would be distracted, and this time to pick his teammate up. Naruto reached his teammate, who seemed to barely be conscious, as he laid down clutching his sides. "You okay, Sasuke?"

"N-No. That guy broke my ribs; probably all of them." Naruto grimaced. Sasuke was not looking good either. Sasuke's face, outfit, and other parts of his body looked all cut up and bruised. Naruto summoned two clones and had them pick up the boy while they started to make their way out of the stadium arena.

Naruto was perhaps a tad careless. Sasuke yelled. "Y-You id-idiot! Watch it!"

The blond winced, and looked embarrassed. "Sorry..."

Sasuke growled, looking miserable. "D-Dammit. I got… taken out so... easily. I missed my match, and I couldn't even… do anything against that thing."

"Relax, dummy. I couldn't do anything against Gaara either." Naruto remarked.

"Even after all that training I did... I'm still not strong enough…."

Naruto shook his head. "Gaara is on a whole level higher than both of us. I'm lucky I didn't end up getting crushed when I fought him."

"You fought this… thing… all through the match?" The tone Sasuke had suggested disbelief.

The blond corrected him immediately. "Gaara wasn't like this through our fight. Even then, I couldn't touch him. Now, he seems pretty unstoppable. I mean, even Sensei is having a hard time with him. Hopefully with us out of the way, Kakashi-sensei could do some real damage." Naruto then saw figures over his head, them moving towards Gaara, who was still in combat with Kakashi. "And it looks like help has arrived."

"We… couldn't do a damn thing..." Sasuke croaked out, starting to look like he was about to slip into unconsciousness.

Naruto shook his head. "Be quiet, bastard, and rest. There's no use fighting it now, and we got to get out of here."

Sasuke didn't say anything for the longest, until he uttered one thing before he fully closed his eyes: "Itachi..."

Naruto didn't think too much of it, because he heard a familiar shriek as he came towards the stadium walls to the stands. "_Naruto!_" At his left, his third teammate, Sakura Haruno, came down. She was accompanied by Ino Yamanaka, Chōji Akimichi and Shikamara Nara. His bubblegum-colored haired teammate immediately gasped in horror. "Naruto… and _Sasuke-kun_! What happened?!"

"Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei arrived right after Gaara went berserk. Gaara got Sasuke." Naruto frowned; Ino unnecessarily shrieked when she saw Sasuke as well. "We need to get out of here, guys. No reason to stay here anymore. Let the jōnin and ANBU deal with it."

"That's what I was trying to tell these guys. There's an invasion going on, and the first thing they wanna do is race down here to see what's going on with you." Shikamaru grunted out his displeasure. "Let's get to an evacuation center already."

"What happened up there?"

"Some sort of powerful genjutsu came down and put almost everyone to sleep. A lot of people fell under the spell." Shikamaru explained briefly. "None of us could break it, but lucky enough, we were woken up by a few shinobi who told us to run. Then, there was fighting up in the stands with our side against Otogakure and Sunagakure. There's a lot of people that were killed; both civilians and shinobi a like. It was too smooth. This was well-thought out and planned; Suna and Oto were planning to invade Konoha for quite some time."

"At least evacuations started..." Ino spoke up, shivering a bit. "Some people gotten out and already headed for shelter." The rest was unspoken about the fate of those who did not escape.

"All those poor people..." Naruto trailed off, feeling anger rise inside of him, but he swallowed it. "Let's go then."

* * *

Things were looking grim around Kakashi as one by one, the extra jōnin who joined his battle against Gaara – who now was the confirmed Ichibi jinchūriki of Sunagakure – was dwindling. Gaara was incredibly strong, and very vicious, lashing out at anything that got near, being able to shrug off physical blows, and weapons. One unfortunately fellow had the ballsy idea to get close and try a combination of taijutsu and kenjutsu against the jinchūriki, which proved to be a foolish endeavor. Gaara – quite literally – tore him asunder.

Then others who tried to keep their distance, spitting out long-range elemental attacks, found that Gaara could play the "keep-away" game much better than they could, with the terrain of the stadium working just find with him. Some were snatched in sandy prisons, and crushed alive, while some were impaled by pure sandy "tentacles" that appeared from the ground. Worse, Gaara seemed to get bigger, and bigger as time progressed, growing in size, which made Kakashi believe Gaara was going to go full transformation, and become the Ichibi in the arena.

Which would be devastating.

Sunagakure had some gall, seriously. He knew Gaara was trouble the moment he saw him, but he didn't know how much until this point, where he was almost fully transformed into his inner demon. To place your jinchūriki in a tournament where he was _leagues _stronger than the competition? Sunagakure had a lot of nerve. Fortunately for Suna, and unfortunate for Konoha, it seemed to be working. If Gaara became the Ichibi, nothing could stop him. His defenses were already nigh-impenetrable like this. Naruto and Sasuke needed to leave, and he hoped they had the good senses to get to an evacuation center (or at least a place where it was safe). He also hoped there was nothing in their ways to prevent that; the village had to be crawling with all these enemy shinobi right about now.

Genma, the assigned proctor for the exams, shot out a senbon, did a few hand seals, and exhaled fire-infused chakra onto it. Then, he did a few more hand seals, turning the single senbon into thousands with the **Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**. Normally, it would be a deadly technique that would kill anyone who got near it, Gaara simply guarded against it, his body becoming adorned with metal pinned all over his body, and yelled out his annoyance when the bombardment of projectiles ended. **"Pest! Out of my way! I must kill Uzumaki! Otherwise, I'll kill **_**you **_**instead."**

"Tch, this is proving to be annoying, Kakashi." The bandana-wearing tokebetsu jōnin. "Nothing seems to be working."

"He's getting stronger and stronger, Genma. We might have a full-fledged transformation here." Kakashi informed, voicing out his earlier thoughts.

"Seriously? Ugh. We're only two guys here, Kakashi. The stuff we been hitting Gaara with isn't working."

"A pain indeed." Kakashi responded, feeling sour himself.

Gaara's enraged roar made the two men tense up. **"More, I need **_**more **_**power! Mother, give me your strength!"**

"Oh shit!" Genma appropriately sounded off as both of them felt that surge of chakra. It wasn't something that could be ignored, even if you weren't a sensor. "If I remember correctly, when the jinchūriki turn into their demons, they become extremely huge, so… Let's get the hell out of here!" Then the brown-haired tokebetsu jōnin disappeared in a swirl of leaves, while Kakashi followed suit.

They had just missed the sounds of the explosion in the stadium going off.

When Kakashi and Genma appeared again outside the stadium, they saw what was left of it. The walls were completely demolished. Pieces of it were all over the outside of the stadium, some pieces still falling down above them. Genma palmed the earth, and a dome of rock covered Kakashi and him. Kakashi flinched at the sounds of pieces of the stadium hitting the barrier. Genma kept his hand on the ground, feeding the earthen barrier for a bit. Kakashi did a few hand seals himself, and made a shadow clone just outside the barrier, in order to check on the state of the outside.

A few moments later, the clone dispelled, and gave him visions of the outside world. He patted Genma on the shoulder, and Genma took that as a silent confirmation that everything was clear. Well, not everything was clear – _clearly_, the village's stadium was now left in ruins. Genma released the connection with his chakra to the Earth, and both of the jōnin stared up at a demon that resembled a tanuki, as it let out of an inhuman wail. "Well, I think I know how it feels how to be a roach..."

If it was any other time more appropriate, Kakashi probably would have laughed at the wisecrack from Genma. As it stood, a gigantic demon was now towering over everything and everyone in the village. All of them were roaches to it.

All those people – both ally and enemy – were surely dead if they didn't get out of the stadium in time, and now there was a tailed beast roaming around the village – like there had been one 13 years ago. He prayed his students, and the rest of the genin associated with them were out of the stadium and safe. What had happened here was a tragedy. A monstrous roar was heard that had to been heard by every shinobi in the village, and Kakashi knew no one wouldn't able to do anything against Gaara right now, now that he was fully transformed.

Things looked bad until Kakashi saw a giant toad plop down right above the two jōnin, destroying some of the rubble that lied before them. There was only one shinobi he could think that could summon toads, and unless his former teacher had risen from the dead, it seemed like Jiraiya had made his scene finally.

_About damn time too_, Kakashi thought, not hesitating to let out that sigh of relief he had been holding in.

* * *

_Things were certainly looking bad_, the Toad Sage thought to himself. One moment, he was watching the matches progress in the tournament, enjoying watching his godson kicking some major butt, the next moment the Hokage Booth goes off in flames and everyone was screaming. Man, he knew they were going to attack – Oto and Suna – but he didn't know they were going to do this here! The enemies' plan was certainly devastating; there was no telling how many people Gaara killed when the jinchūriki was allowed to transform in the stadium. Jiraiya knew it had to be Orochimaru, and was about to chase after him to help the Hokage, but then the jinchūriki decided he needed to transform into his demon.

So much for a good day.

Jiraiya summoned chakra in his body, and prepared the technique already he had in mind. A biting of his finger later, and a few hand seals, and Gamabuta, the giant boss of the toad summons rose in the rubble of the stadium. Gamabunta, who was just as large as Shukaku here who was currently standing in where the stadium used to be hollering loudly, was going to be invaluable in this fight.

The white-haired toad sage suffered a minor grumble from Gamabunta, before the chieftain of the toads started speaking gruffly. **"Why do y****'****a****ll**** always ****gotta ****put me through ****d****is kind of shit? This is going to be my **_**second **_**time tusslin****'**** with a tailed beast, Jiraiya. ****Minato made ****it ****the first. ****That's not t****a**** say what else y****a**** had me fight ove****r da**** years."**

Jiraiya snorted. "Ah, quit your belly-aching, Bunta. It's not going to be all that bad. He just transformed – should still be getting revved up."

**"Yeah, ok. **_**Ya **_**tell me it's not a big deal when **_**ya **_**fight a damn ****tailed ****beast." **Gamabunta grunted backwards. Jiraiya could see a giant blue aura wrap around Gamabunta's sword. The Ichibi had long gone stopped roaring maniacally, and started leering in Gamabunta's direction. **"****Well, thank the spirits the jinchūriki hasn't gone full demon yet, otherwise we would have more problems, ****Alright, so what do y****a**** want me to do?"**

"Alright, so the plan is we're going to completely subdue him, so to do that, we can't be here. Bring him out of the village. We'll deal with the demon in the forest. That way, we avoid anymore damage in the village." They were lucky that the stadium was already at the edge of the village anyway. Gamabunta wasn't exactly the lightest of creatures. "The other snake summons in the village are being dealt with by a clone of me, Gamahiro, and a few ANBU squads. That shouldn't be a problem at all. After we deal with this, we're heading off to find and help the Sandaime against Orochimaru."

Gamabunta grunted, that being the only sort of indication he was listening to what Jiraya was saying. Jiraiya felt that spike of energy – he was no sensor but he could definitely feel that energy build up. Senjutsu chakra was up and on. Gamabunta had long ago expressed not liking using it, because he particularly was more versed in close range combat and regular usage of Water Release, but it seemed like he had no choice when fighting something as powerful as a bijū. The energy stabilized and Jiraiya knew his toad friend was ready. Gamabunta was ready for some action.

The toads of Mount Myōboku had already knew the vague details of a possible invasion by Orochimaru and that village, Otogakure. Jiraiya didn't know it would be Sunagakure involved as well, otherwise this defending of the village would go much smoother. Right now, the stadium was now nothing but rubble and a whole lot of dead bodies. It was time for Sunagakure to get some payback.

"**Suiton: Teppōdama!**" The Water Release technique shot out of the toad's mouth, resembling a cannonball more than a bullet itself. On a human target, that would be outright deadly. On a tailed beast, it would do little more than agitate the demon – which is what they wanted to do.

Jiraiya gathered chakra to the soles of his foot, and anchored on the toad's head tightly with it, as Gamabunta was already preparing to jump to the forest. When Gamabunta leaped, the Ichibi followed shortly afterward like the elder shinobi knew it would. Spheres of wind chakra shout out the mouth of the sand demon, to which Gamabunta dodged swiftly.

When the village started to become a distant speck, Jiraiya shouted to Gamabunta to stop, and start fighting. Gamabunta had quickly drew forward the tantō from his back, and decided to fight the beast at short range. Seconds later, that seemed to be easier said to done, as the Ichibi decided to shoot a gigantic sphere of wind at Gamabunta and Jiraiya. Gamabunta countered with the **Suiton: Teppōdama** from before. The Water Release ninjutsu equaled the Ichibi's attack in size and power and both elements clashed together; the sky briefly raining down in giant globs of water.

Keeping the toad and Jiraiya at a distance, the Ichibi then decided to use sand attacks, shooting globs of it from his mouth, and then large spires of sand appeared under Gamabunta. The toad was already out of the way, hopping towards the great beast, who was still hollering at the chief toad and Jiraiya. Gamabunta did a ram hand seal, then tiger, and six senjutsu-influenced cannonball-sized spheres of water were shot at the tailed beast, who decided to defend again with a shield made of sand. It proved to be a foolish effort as the torrents of water tore through the sand easily, and wet the rest of the body of the demon. The **Suiton: Roku Idaina Jūsei** easily made short work of the sand, and dampened the entire monster.

Sand, ultimately, was an earthen material. Normally, Earth Release techniques was very effective against Water Release techniques because how it dissipated the force of water, and its flow, making it useless and easily absorbed by earth techniques. However, that would prove to be useful here as the water was never meant to do anything but make the sand heavier and fall together. It was both the theory of Jiraiya and the toad chief that water could make sand much harder for the tailed beast to control, and since it was a creature made entirely of sand, it would make the beast slower.

The creature roared, trying to put its arm up, only to find incredibly hard to do so; Gamabunta pulled out his sword – saturated in water chakra – and cut off the offending arm, and then the other. The beast hollered, whimpering in pain, allowing Gamabunta ample time to complete his second technique. Lowering his tantō and hopping slightly back, Gamabunta then summoned more water into his mouth, spitting it out of his mouth onto the beast. It struggled, but the Ichibi could not move anymore now.

The **Mizuame Teppō **was a senjutsu-infused Water Release technique with a high viscosity, capable of covering one battlefield with a sticky cohesive that was capable of binding even the largest of foes. A tailed beast itself wouldn't be any different, and with how much Gamabunta had made a point with shooting water techniques at the tanuki-looking demon, the monster would be easily subdued.

Jiraiya gotten a closer look as Gamabunta was set on using his technique, and could see Gaara sticking out of the head of the great tailed beast. Jiraiya jumped off, chakra pumping in his lower extremities to both help him jump and land without a problem, and landed on the monster's head. Gaara was starting to yell, possibly out of frustration that his control for his beast's power had become almost nonexistent. Sand attempted to rise at Jiraiya's side to attack him but it had been too slow to form, and the Toad Sage was already moving away from its range, and to Gaara's position. Not wasting any time, Jiraiya's fingertips became aglow with a purple flame sitting on each finger.

The kanji for metal, wood, water, fire, and earth came forth in each fingertip, while Jiraiya tore the top half of Gaara's black body suit with one hand, to reveal a seal placed on the left side of his chest. He then slammed his fingertips on the seal. The deranged shinobi hollered as the flames burned into his skin for a few seconds, before finally slumping over as the sand demon that Gaara nearly transformed into became nothing but specks of dust and sand scattering in the wind. This, of course, left them in the air. Jiraiya captured Gaara's body into his arms, using a minor Wind Release to slow his descent down, and reinforced his legs with normal chakra again. Gamabunta did the rest of the job, and caught the two with his head.

Thankfully, they weren't all that far in the air, and Jiraiya felt nothing much in his legs when he landed on Gamabunta. Gamabunta seemed to be a few feet shorter than the demon in any case. Even with Gaara now unconscious, Jiraiya took no chances, and placed a hand on the teen's chest. Mud formed around the jinchūriki, and further usage of his chakra stuck Gaara onto the head of the toad. "Sorry, Gamabunta. Bet it feels a little weird, but it will only be for a little while. After we get near the village, I'll make another clone and drop this guy off into the custody of the ANBU."

Gamabunta only grunted and hopped towards the village. Jiraiya had already had prepared himself for a giant leap from the toad.

There was still more to come.

* * *

Naruto and his peers had decided going onto the streets of Konoha to get to an evacuation center was stupid. There was still fighting on ground-level; hollering, shouting of techniques of all kinds, and massive amount of dead bodies littered the streets. Instead, the six of the genin traveled on the rooftops of each of the buildings of the village – eight if you counted the clones who were carrying Sasuke Uchiha, who was still very much still unconscious. Shikamaru lead the front, knowing exactly where the nearest evacuation center was, while Naruto and Chōji – the heavy-hitters of the group, covered the back. Sasuke, Naruto's two clones, Ino, and Sakura covered the bulk of the middle.

The rooftops was far from being clear however. Each of the rooftops they had been on had beaten down with signs of previous battle, and sometimes, they saw dead bodies on top of them also. One rooftop, the entourage came across two enemy shinobi – both clad in gray clothing that looked similar to the clothing those Otogakure shinobi were wearing back in the preliminaries of the Chūnin Exams. Lucky enough, before the enemies knew what was happening, they gotten the drop on them – literally. After Shikamaru did his **Kagemane no Jutsu,** holding the enemies in place, Naruto followed up with his **Doton: Ichi no Kōu**, smashing their heads in with large rocks. Chōji – just to make sure they were disposed of – enlarged his arm, and swept them off the roof to the ground before they proceeded again.

"We're nearing the center, guys," Shikamaru announced, the Nara still leading the pack. "It's about two buildings away."

"Thank the Gods. We can get some medical attention for Sasuke-kun soon." Ino answered, to which both Sakura and Naruto nodded at.

Things turned south when, without much warning, a squall broke out through the afternoon wind to swallow the gang of shinobi. Although everyone got hit, the middle of the group, meaning the two kunoichi and Sasuke, took the brunt of the attack. They landed painfully against the rooftops' railing – Sasuke obviously getting the worse of it as he awoke with a howl of pain – but otherwise, they weren't blown off. Though, Sakura and Ino seemed to be still be conscious – if their painful groans from the side of the building's roof top was an indication of that.

The remaining three male shinobi quickly got back to their feet.

Naruto knew who they were dealing with as the enemy landed in front of them. It seemed like it would be another round against Temari with her brother, Kankurō, now involved in the mix. Thankfully, he had his allies with him this time.

Temari smirked in his direction. "Well, it looks like we finally caught up with you folk."

"You were following us?" Naruto questioned, the blond responding to the other one's comment with a frown.

"I want another fight. You can say I'm somewhat of a sore loser!" Then she swung her fan again – a gust of wind erupting from the metal. Naruto barely moved out the way of the attack before he spun back, being hit by another. It seemed like she was focusing towards him.

Naruto hit the ground hard, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He got up, cuts now adorning his face. He winced; gods did that sting a lot. If she was focusing toward, maybe Naruto could get Temari away from the band of genin. They were already in a bad situation with three people who now seemed injured. "Shikamaru, Chōji! Get the others to the center! I'll deal with her."

Temari snorted. "Like we'll let that happened. Kankurō, deal with them. I got this brat. Me and him got a bone to pick."

The puppeteer arrogantly remarked, "Light work," and started his own assault on the two standing members of Team Asuma. The puppet swung at Shikamaru first, who dodged, backed up and sent kunai towards the direction of the puppet, which served little more than a distraction anyway.

"Naruto, don't be stupid. They _want _you to separate from us. Doing that lone wolf bullcrap isn't going to be good. Right now, both Ino and Sakura aren't exactly 100% and the less that can be said about Sasuke, the better." Shikamaru growled out at the blond who looked like he was still ready to go do something stupid. That would just serve to get everyone here killed. "Get some distance from us if you must, but don't go too far."

"Alright, I got-" Naruto didn't finish the sentence, too busy dodging a fierce gale.

"Less talking, more fighting." Temari smirked, swinging her fan at Naruto freely. Now that the effect Naruto put on it had long ago dissipated, lifting and swinging the metal fan had been quite easy again. She found some sort of glee seeing the brat panic as blasts of wind shot at him.

Naruto hated the situation, and knew this battle was much more in his opponent's favor than the battle in the tournament. He had no underground to run to, and he was finding a hard time getting any space to summon his clones. Temari seemed to be focused on him, and him only. He couldn't see what the rest of his peers were doing at all, and Naruto found himself on a building adjacent to the one they were on when they met the Suna shinobi.

Naruto knew the only way he was getting any sort of advantage against Temari was to head to ground level, and the resource of earth techniques would be abundant. He could do what he did best, and hide underground to form a new plan. He got enough time to time make a clone though, which proved to be just enough to get his strategy rolling. The clone bounced away from Temari, as the teenager sent a howling gale of wind his way again. Naruto idly wondered if the girl had a lot of chakra much like how her brother, Gaara, seemed to have, as he completed the **Kawarimi no Jutsu **and switched his positions with his shadow clone.

Instantly, the clone was dispelled by the wind, and Naruto received the memories as he found himself in the mid-air, jumping towards the alleyway. Not wasting any time, Naruto sunk into the ground, spawning clones before he did so. Temari had followed him down, shooting wind again from her fan. He could feel the winds whipping above his face, missing him by inches. He closed the hole, and started spreading his chakra in the soil, moving it along as he moved through it.

His chakra was starting to feel like it was taking a hit – all day, he had been using chakra nonstop without taking a breather. He, of course, couldn't gauge where the level of his chakra sat at, but he was starting to feel a little winded. Nevertheless, he summoned clones topside to serve as distractions to Temari and things to track the Suna kunoichi's position. Much to his surprise, when memories were fed back to him, Temari made sure to move fast, never standing on the ground against his clones as she shot attack after attack at them.

This has been her pattern: move back when the clones approached, cling to the walls of a nearby building, and then blast his clones with some nameless Wind Release technique, or one Naruto didn't quite care to know about at the time. She had been using all these wind attacks all day; that had to be a confirmation that she had quite a bit of chakra to spend, and she didn't look a bit winded. Nevertheless, Naruto was sure he had more chakra than she did; unless she was like him, a jinchūriki. He wouldn't know how to see if she was one. In fact, if it was any indication, Gaara seemed like he was one – that massive spike of energy let off by him, and the flood of chakra that surrounded him when he transformed seemed to be a telling sign of being a demon vessel like him. Naruto didn't know, and all of this was just idle thinking. _Back to focusing on Temari, idiot,_ Naruto chastised himself.

The girl clung to the wall of the building once again with her chakra. The only way to get her onto his ground would be actually pulling her down. Naruto had no problem with that, plan in mind as he flared his chakra and let loose hundreds dopplegangers of himself, the ground above him erupting. Temari flinched, and reared back her fan, looking ready to load up an attack again, but there were way too many Naruto clones covering her from almost every angle. Her own solution was to head up, which she did, speed up the building wall to the roof.

And when she got enough space, she blasted them with an air technique again.

Well, most of them. One Naruto remained in the mix: himself. It was time to try something new out on Temari. Manically grinning, Naruto tore through the tornado, feeling the sting of the wind chakra across his skin, but ultimately didn't care one bit. Temari was still in the process of using the technique, and then she saw him pretty much rush through a tornado. It was obvious she quickly became alarmed.

One last thing about chakra flow that Ebisu-sensei briefly went over that Naruto expanded on himself while reading up some stuff in the library. You could place chakra in almost anything, whether it be objects, other people, and even flow it in yourself. Naruto had already worked out the kinks on how to flow chakra through his limbs – his hands and feet being the easiest place to do it on his body, it being the thing he worked on when days Ebisu refused to teach him, but the one thing he was working on currently was perfect distribution of earth chakra flowing through his body. The technique he was working on was, therefore, still incomplete, but he did get down on the basics. Earth really was the best defensive element to know, and as crazy and stupid it was to jump through a _fucking_ gale of slicing wind, he did it.

A few cuts on his skin was like a slap on the wrist. Well, he lied, it hurt like Hell.

As soon as he was near the face of Temari, who was frozen in shock, he reared back his earth chakra-laced fist before crunching her in the face with it. Like before, Temari went down with one solid hit, her head being rattled back.

That was it: he won.

Seeing the girl knocked unconscious, Naruto nodded to himself, and was about leave but stopped.

And he sighed. _'Goddammit.'_

Call it a weakness for cute girls, or maybe it was because he plain disliked killing people, or leaving them to die, Naruto decided he would go do the right thing (in his own opinion), which would be turn in this girl to the ANBU and have them take it from there. Tricky part would be finding a squad though. Ah, maybe Shikamaru would be able to help him out.

He really should be trying to get back to his group.

* * *

After dropping Gaara off, his clone dispelled and fed Jiraiya information on the whereabouts of the Hokage. Jiraiya cut a path to the area where the sky-high barrier of purple flames stood ominously in the background. A hop later, and Gamabunta stopped near the barrier. ANBU all circled the area; a clump of the ninja were surrounding one portion of the barrier. Jiraiya took heed of the green-colored hooded cloaks, and knew these ANBU were a part of a fūinjutsu squad.

The seal master went over to talk to the people, simultaneously dismissing his giant toad partner who disappeared in a giant cloud of smoke. This did not go unheard of. Some, who were inspecting the barrier standing up, gave him a quick salute, while he nodded wordlessly, and turned his head towards the purple barrier. Ah, the **Shishienjin** – a nearly impenetrable barrier ninjutsu/fūinjutsu technique that required four people to hold up the barrier. He saw one of Orochimaru's subjects at work, holding the barrier up. They themselves were protected from outside interference.

An explosion rocked the roof, and battle was still fierce in the purple barrier. Elemental techniques had arose from both sides, thrown by Orochimaru and the Hokage inside. They had been going at it for a while before he arrived here. It was time to get inside and help his former teacher out-

And then he felt it. A surge of chakra inside the barrier; too powerful to ignore. Even someone with meager sensing abilities like him, he could feel it. It must had been twice as bad for the sensors of the ANBU, some who even lost their compose to gasp in awe and fear.

"Two Kage-level beings were summoned inside the barrier, Jiraiya-sama!" One ANBU yelled out.

Jiraiya had a feeling that was not good. "Alright, we got to hurry – quick. I have a feeling those beings inside aren't here to aid our Hokage." And he had a seal to take care of it. The thing about the **Shishienjin** was they had to be held up by the four shinobi inside. It required all four to hold up the barrier – meaning if one of them were felled, it would create a hole in the barrier. Which would make it a hole the forces of Konohagakure could get through. Orochimaru had figured Jiraiya would be too busy with the summons to do anything, but that couldn't be any further from the truth. That or he thought he would be able to kill the Sandaime right off the back like that. Sarutobi-sensei may have not been the same ninja he was when he was younger, but the current Hokage was still one of the most powerful shinobi on this entire continent. Orochimaru hadn't really changed since Jiraiya last seen him: an arrogant bastard that was too assured by his power.

Besides all of that, the **Shishienjin** was one of the many barrier ninjutsu Sarutobi-sensei showed them growing up. _Such an old-school technique, Orochimaru,_ Jiraiya chided in his head. The weakness of the barrier was not inside, but rather, outside. The people who were holding up the barrier itself were the weakness – get rid of them, and this was no problem. However Jiraiya had an even better solution – which was to keep a perpetual hole inside the barrier.

Pulling out a paper seal from his pocket, he activated it with his chakra, with red glowing kanji on it reading "封" ("Seal"). Then, he raised it towards the barrier's direction, and watched the purple flames of the barrier started to be sucked up into the seal. The barrier itself would hold based on how much chakra the users had, and unless they purposely wanted to constantly feed a barrier chakra that was ultimately letting people in still, it would be a waste of time and chakra. In the end, the barrier would come down thanks to the work of the **F****ū****ka H****ō****in**.

And the enemy realized it was a foolish endeavor to keep the barrier going because before Jiraiya's fire canceling seal could finish its work, they dropped the technique, and all four of Orochimaru's guards went to fight the ANBU. Jiraiya allowed his fellow countrymen to handle the guards, while he made a beeline to Orochimaru, who seem alarmed that his grand plan was coming undone.

He inspected the battleground and seen something extremely alarming. Large roots that looked like it belonged to a giant tree and water was on the ground. Before Jiraiya could think what that meant, he narrowly dodged a blow from one source of the issue. Jiraiya could have never imagine even meeting the legendary "God of Shinobi", Hashirama Senju, let alone fighting the man in battle. Now, this seemed to the case. The very-dead Shodai Hokage was very much alive at this point, or maybe… not so. In fact, he looked just like he was the very day he died in battle – still very much young looking, despite the cracks adorning his face, and in the same iconic red armor he died in. The odd thing about it was just that. It looked like he hadn't age a day since he died.

Jiraiya got another shocker when he met the Nidaime Hokage's fist, aimed to his temple. Tobirama Senju was another dead Hokage before his time; his blue armor and white shaggy hair flowing through the air as he jetted past Jiraiya and kicked the sannin in his back hard. His face too was wearing a lot of lines that looked like cracks, his skin was almost gray, and his eyes looked cold and dead. That was just great, wasn't it? Two dead Hokage now back to life, because there was _no _way Orochimaru had them in his service for this long, truly alive.

What laws of physics and nature did Orochimaru break to get these two people to come back to live to serve him? Now he could see why Sarutobi-sensei was having an issue defeating Orochimaru in combat for an hour, when Jiraiya was sure it wouldn't take him that long. If he had to deal with Orochimaru, and then the two Senju brothers, Jiraiya surely would have many issues too, and Sarutobi-sensei was one of the best. The old coot could _still _teach the Gama Sennin a few things or two.

Well, today was going to be something interesting indeed.

First, he had to get these two off of him, which was proving to be difficult. As he was thinking all the insults he could call Orochimaru in the book for what he did, Hashirama again attempted to engage him in taijutsu. Jiraiya narrowly dodged the God of Shinobi, knowing from his history that one did not want to engage the Shodai Hokage in close quarters. Tobirama then followed, but Jiraiya managed to get a leg up and kick the white-haired Hokage where the solar plexus would be located at. Taijutsu was a skill that may not been his forte (unlike a certain green-wearing shinobi he knew), but no one wanted to go up against it. He was no Tsunade, but he was able to crack stone with his feet alone.

The Hokage didn't so much make a grunt however, and after he fell almost boneless to the ground, he picked himself up, and came again. Meanwhile, Jiraiya narrowly dodged a spire of stone that appeared at his feet, and summoned chakra to his throat, oil filling his mouth. Then, he spat it out, before howling out fire from his mouth to create a large blaze of fire aimed towards the Shodai. It hit the Hokage head on, before his form collapsed into burning wood.

A clone made out of wood. He should have expected that. He _really _should have expected that. For his mistake, wood started wrapping around his figure, squeezing his arms together to his body. Jiraiya allowed the flow of fire to surround him, but was surprised to see that fire could not burn the wood. He didn't wonder why it didn't, just knowing staying in the bindings meant certain death. He had to think quick when the Shodai Hokage came forth with a wooden sword made out of his hand. Infusing chakra into his feet, and then stretching it out to infuse with the Senju's shadow, Jiraiya's form became just as weightless, and he disappeared into the Hokage's shadow.

The work of the **Gamadaira: Kageyatsuri no Jutsu** was really great on surprising enemies or escaping binding techniques like what the Shodai Hokage had previously done to him. Jiraiya held his breath, and moved closer to the man, before releasing the technique. The guy didn't know what hit him when Jiraiya then immediately charged up a **Rasengan**, and hit him face first with it.

Jiraiya then gotten a Water Release technique fly his way, the technique looking fairly dangerous and lethal should it hit him head on. A quick performance of the **Kawirimi no Jutsu**, and a piece of wood was in the same space Jiraiya once occupied, getting devoured by the water. The Shodai Hokage may have not been a problem anymore, but Jiraiya was left to deal with the stone-faced, dead Nidaime Hokage. Without forming even one hand seal, behind the Hokage two dragons came to live, shaped out of pure water chakra. No water source whatever anywhere (except, perhaps the air) himself, and the toad sage was reminded why Tobirama was perhaps one of the most scariest Water Release user in history. Jiraiya buckled down, and slammed his palms into the ground, and fed the ground his chakra. A dome of pure rock was created, barely holding up to the water dragons slamming against it. It shook, and Jiraiya shook with it.

All of this took some bit out of him. Switching between elements were rough on the tenketsu, throwing ninjutsu here and there, and then making earth out of his own chakra thanks to no viable source on the terrain he was fighting on – the roof itself was made of wood, which would probably work more to Hashirama's favor – was not easy. Jiraiya cut the link between the roof and his chakra, and moved away. The Nidaime was still hot on his tail, sending a barrage of water techniques. One managed to knock into Jiraiya's shoulder, which made the 51-year old man spin, and throw him to the ground. Tobirama went in for the finishing blow, approaching with a kunai ready to stab Jiraiya, but it was a mistake as Jiraiya created a stone spear, and it flew into the eyeball of the Nidaime. Much to the credit to Tobirama, he didn't yell or scream in pain – not that Jiraiya cared enough to make a big deal about.

Doing a sequence of hand-seals, Jiraiya quickly followed up spitting oil onto the Hokage, and burning him into cinders with a **Katon: Endan**. The fireball connected, and Tobirama was blown back away from Jiraiya.

The Shodai came back, but Jiraiya was ready for him, and before he could do anything, Jiraiya summoned wind into his hand, and a tearing gale of wind sliced into neck of the remaining Hokage, lobbing off the neck.

The Sannin sighed in some relief, glad the battle was over. Soon, things would be finished here. He turned away and went to help the Sandaime battle Orochimaru, approaching their side of the field. The two seemed engaged in a battle of weapons. Orochimaru was swinging around the Blade of Kusanagi, a legendary sword granted to him a long time ago, and Sarutobi was swinging back with a massive staff.

Ah, Sarutobi-sensei's **Kong****ō****nyoi**, if he wasn't mistaken. That meant the monkey summon, Enma, was around helping him. Good. At least Sarutobi wasn't all alone then. Jiraiya decided it was time to enter the fray to assist his teacher, landing a kick onto the backside of the snake who was attacking him. Orochimaru roared, being launched back by the sucker punch (well, kick).

"Jiraiya!" Sarutobi breathed out, looking exhausted and drained.

"I'm here, Sensei. Let's go kick our old Orochi's ass, shall we?"

"What did you do to Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama?" His teacher was all business, and not in a joking manner.

Jiraiya grinned nonetheless, trying to be reassuring. "Took them out, of course. Wasn't too hard, really. They are probably dead… well, again."

Sarutobi only turned more alarmed. "They do not die, tire, or stay down for long, Jiraiya. They will get back up. I already had used some of my strongest techniques against them and after a few minutes, they regenerated their wounds completely and was back in fighting condition. I suspect the very reason why they are still going is because of Orochimaru's control over them. Damn him for his perversion of Nidaime-sama's technique."

"And such a divine technique the Nidaime created, Sensei. Such a divine one." Orochimaru remarked, smirking as he picked himself and stood tall with his sword.

Sarutobi growled, and turned to face the pale-skinned man, already prepared to fight again. Meanwhile, Jiraiya had a different reaction. "Ah, seems like Orochi has gotten back up from the little love tap I gave him to his back." Jiraiya smirked at the source of the voice. "You okay there?"

Said man glared at the toad sage in annoyance, the Kusanagi blade no longer in his hands. "Jiraiya, my old friend. So, you are the reason my guards couldn't hold up the barrier."

"Yes, it is I! The Great One! The Magnificent One!" Jiraiya bellowed, starting to pose flippantly. "I am here to shine down light in this battle, and save the village from your evil ways, Orochimaru!"

"Still ever the buffoon, I see. It's amazing how little you have changed since we last met."

Jiraiya had immediately thought up a counter. "Buffoon, you say? Yet, you taught your guards a technique me, you and Tsunade-hime figured out a way to counter since we seen the move being used by an enemy squad in the Second Shinobi World War. How foolish of you."

Orochimaru chuckled. "Oh? You still remember? Ah, of course. After all, we did develop the seal that absorbs Fire Release ninjutsu together, did we not? Perhaps I was a little silly choosing such a technique for them to use."

"Well, it's not your fault your guards suck. Oh wait, it kind of is, isn't it? Now the ANBU are dealing with them, while I beat the crap out of you for summoning back the previous two Hokage, Orochi."

The demented snake sage snickered. "Oh? Did you like what I did? I have gained the power to control both life and death. I have reanimated them for the sole purpose of playing with our sensei here. Unfortunately, you had to come and ruin all the fun. Oh Jiraiya, you party pooper."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. You come back home after _so long_ of being gone, and you think you're going have a blast here without seeing me? Come on now, Orochi. We got to catch up and all. Oh, and by the way, you thought you can distract me with some mere shit middle-tier snake summons in the village? You _got_ to stop underestimating me."

Orochimaru shrugged. "Perhaps. Well, this banter was fun for a little bit, but I think I will resuming killing our former teacher. Yes, I think that will be a splendid idea. Meanwhile, you can deal with the Hokage again."

On cue, a blast of water was sent his way, and if it was not for the warning Sarutobi-sensei gave him and him feeling something wasn't quite right, Jiraiya probably would been washed right off this roof by the Nidaime's nameless Water Release technique. Jiraiya simply moved away, and pivoted towards the other sannin with a **Rasengan **charged in hand, but Orochimaru slipped away, going towards the Hokage who prepared himself for another battle with his former wayward student.

Jiraiya found the other Hokage hot on his heels, as he dodged water and wood alike. Blasts of water after water came from the Nidaime, while the Shodai kept stomping on the ground, creating pillars of wood coming up under the white-haired sannin. So the Sandaime wasn't kidding, huh? Orochimaru essentially had brought back two Kage-level shinobi that had no sort of limit.

Dealing with Gaara, summoning two toads (one being the boss of the toads, and the other a very high-tier summon), some other various techniques, and now this battle was starting to dent his chakra reserves, but he wasn't one of the Legendary Three Ninjas for nothing. Still though, if Orochimaru had been able to summon undead versions of the first two Hokage with quick regeneration abilities, and lots of chakra to spare, things would get bad quick if they didn't finish the two off. Perhaps if Sarutobi and/or Jiraiya killed off Orochimaru – like how real summons acted with their summoners – the two Hokage would go away? It was a good idea, but Jiraiya was still stuck in battle against them for now. Meanwhile the Sandaime was, no doubt, fighting Orochimaru. This was hardly fair – three against two. Where was other back up when you needed it? Right now, it seemed like Jiraiya couldn't get a solid, sticking hit on the two Hokage.

The sage of toads then felt his vision shake and shake until he could not see anymore. There was nothing but darkness. His senses were out of a wack for a second, until he recognized the effects of what was happened. Genjutsu. And there was only _one_ technique _both_ of the Hokage were famous for wielding that created the sensation of someone suddenly going blind.

Shit, he read this technique up too. It was a genjutsu called the **Kokuangyo no Jutsu**. What an apt name for a technique – the world became nothing but darkness, and had him been a lesser shinobi, he would have panicked. However, Jiraiya was not, and instead of relying on his eyes, he relied on his ears, nose, and more importantly, his chakra.

The smell of dirt and decay filled his nose, and he barely dodged an attack whizzing past his face. He couldn't dodge a blast of water however, and his senses still were not reset back to normal. The genjutsu was still in full effect. Fortunately however, he was caught by a person, and feeling a surge of chakra run through him like a current, his vision returned. "Sensei, I'm assuming that's you."

"Aye, it is. You're having a problem with Tobirama-sama and Hashirama-sama."

"I am. I don't know much of their abilities." Jiraiya admitted, feeling no shame for such. He might had have a better chance if he was able to summon some extra outside help, but it would take time, and a fight like this wouldn't allow him the ample time to do so.

"I suppose is time for us to switch opponents." Sarutobi did a strange combination of a wheeze and a grunt. "Deal with Orochimaru then, if only for a short while. I am preparing a technique that can put the two of my old masters out of commission, and possibly kill Orochimaru."

"You look exhausted, almost as exhausted as I am, Sensei. What type of technique do you have in mind that won't kill you?" It wasn't hard to see how low on fumes the Sandaime Hokage was running on. Hokage or not, no person's chakra was unlimited – no mortal's, anyway.

"Death is nothing I am worried about, Jiraiya. I only care about winning. As for the technique I have in mind for our former countryman, it will be something that will make sure Orochimaru will no longer be a threat. I admit however, my reserves with my chakra are starting to get very low, Jiraiya. If... you do not mind..." Sarutobi trailed off, but Jiraiya knew what he wanted from him. The toad sage nodded, believing he had some chakra in his own tank to spare, and immediately sent a transmission of his own chakra to the body of the Hokage.

The old man's body jolted a bit but Sarutobi – who was more slumped over, and trying his best to cover up his slowly hardening breathing (yes, Jiraiya noticed) – stood more straighter and sent a barely noticeable nod to Jiraiya before going off to attack the two Hokage. Orochimaru came in, like on cue, to stop this but Jiraiya intercepted his former teammate with a punch, to which did little to nothing to the snake man, who twisted his face and neck unnaturally in a strange motion to avoid it.

Jiraiya didn't let that deter him, and continued his assault on the other man, which seemed to more and more becoming affected with distracting his former teammate. Orochimaru could not afford just ignoring the Konoha shinobi, and so turned his sights on him, which is what Jiraiya wanted. Sarutobi-sensei could fight the other two better than he could. Perhaps it wasn't as fair to leave the Hokage to them, but he stated he had a technique in mind that would take care of the Senju brothers _and _Orochimaru.

He believed in his teacher. He just hoped whatever the old coot was doing wouldn't be any threat to himself. Jiraiya fired an Earth Release technique at Orochimaru, to which the snake dodged, of course, but something happened, and Jiraiya had gotten a strange feeling creep over him. Like, death looming over them. Of course, any three of them could die at any moment, but something told him that literal death hung over the battle. The skies themselves started to darken, as if something big was going to happen.

Orochimaru must have felt it to, because he paused, looking briefly confused. He stopped attacking, and looked towards the Hokage's battle. He smirked. "Oh? It looks like Sarutobi-sensei has dealt with my toys."

Jiraiya looked himself, and see no more sign of the two other Hokage who were here. Thank goodness to whatever Sarutobi-sensei had done to stop them. "Looks like a lot of your plans have failed, Orochimaru."

"Oh, no. Not by the slightest. Our teacher must be running on low fumes now. I suppose it's time to stop playing here, and mosey over there to finish what I came for."

Jiraiya wouldn't have it, rushing to the man with a **Rasengan **in hand, but Orochimaru had – disgustingly enough – turned his bottom half into what seemed to be the bottom of a snake, and sped off to Sarutobi. Orochimaru was still the fast one of the group of sannin, it seemed.

But Sarutobi seemed to be ready, and dodged the snake man's swipe before grabbing onto him by the shoulders. Jiraiya moved closer and saw Orochimaru's face completely frozen with shock, and fear.

The missing-nin growled. "What are you doing, Sensei?"

Sarutobi smirked weakly. "Winning this battle, Orochimaru, even if it kills me. Just like how I had done with my former teachers, you will be the same. I have learned I should have not allowed you to leave Konohagakure before with your life. I will now rectify my mistakes, by taking you down with me. For the glory of Konohagakure!"

Orochimaru gasped, for once having that arrogance of his be replaced by real, stark fear. "No, _no_, I feel my soul… slipping away."

Jiraiya looked alarmed at that. There was only one technique he could think of that could do such a thing. "Sensei, what are you doing? What kind of technique is this?!"

"A technique another Hokage before me has used, Jiraiya. I'm sorry, my boy, but I need to do this. For too long has I let my kind heart rule over me. The next Hokage after me, I hope, never makes the same mistakes I have. I leave Konohagakure to your hands, Jiraiya. Serve her well. Executing the **F****ū****injutsu: Shiki F****ū****jin**!"

What was his teacher saying to him? It was _that_ technique? The very own that killed his own beloved student, Minato? No, it could not be. But, perhaps that's what he felt – the looming death that hung over them, darkening the skies around them. The kinjutsu that was the **Shiki F****ū****jin** had been used before was being used again, and Jiraiya had studied the technique extensively ever since Minato had died.

The seal was crafted by the former Uzumaki Clan themselves, which invoked the Shinigami, and used the Death God Itself to kill their enemies. Such a terrifying thing was one of the reasons why the Uzumaki Clan was destroyed, of course. To see this technique in action, even if he couldn't see the Death God himself, was terrifying.

Orochimaru was practically screaming, unable to move, but flapping his gums anyway. "No, no! I can't die here! My dream hasn't be fulfilled yet. My hopes, my ambitions! You must stop this, Sensei. You will kill your own self, you old fool! Those who summon the Shinigami will die!"

But Jiraiya heard nothing but a grunt of exhaustion from Sarutobi, who concentrated to continue his task on finishing Orochimaru. Orochimaru growled out one last thing, "Kusanagi, Summon!"

And Jiraiya watched as the sword Orochimaru once used traveled quickly to the backside of the current Hokage, but Jiraiya was already on it, sending the sword flying back with a **Rasengan** to throw it off course. The sword spun far away from them.

"No!" Orochimaru howled in despair.

Sarutobi nodded, not looking in Jiraiya's direction. "I thank you, Jiraiya. It would have been harder completing this technique if the sword gotten to me. Enma, form a barrier around us."

The staff became many with a technique similar to the **Kage Bunshin**, and then formed a lattice boxing in both Orochimaru and Sarutobi. To make the barrier even more protected, eyes popped out of the staves, and furry arms too. The hundreds arms made a cross guard to protect the barrier. It seemed like even in staff mode, Enma could produce several of his body parts out of the staff. Nothing could get through that thing now, not where Enma was a literal aegis protecting and observing anything that got near.

Orochimaru had long gone become slacken with fear, and if it was possible, even more paler. Jiraiya approached, sadness in his eyes. Orochimaru was finished, for good now, but now, so was the Sandaime. "Sarutobi-sensei..."

"Jiraiya." The man croaked out, his voice almost lost. "I… have prepared a letter… in my quarters in the Hokage Residence. Seek out Shikaku Nara. He… shall know what to do next. Read the letter, Jiraiya, and follow whatever is on the letter's instructions. This… is my last order to you."

"I will, Sensei." Jiraiya was openly weeping, and he did not care.

"It… has be an honor being your teacher, Jiraiya. You have made me proud, my boy. So proud. The same is to be said of Naruto. Like his father, I will… regret not being able to see him grow in the man I know he will be. Like Konohagakure, take care of him, Jiraiya."

"You bet your ass, old man. I'll do it. I'll make him to the best spirits-damn shinobi you would ever seen! I'll mold him in the best Hokage you would ever seen! I swear on it!"

Sarutobi smiled brightly at him, and said one final word: "Good." Then, he and Orochimaru spinelessly dropped to the ground, no longer drawing any breath. Even as he died, Sarutobi-sensei did what he loved doing: smiling. Jiraiya smiled too, and crouched near him, closing his eyes.

He did not do the same for Orochimaru.

Even with the invasion's biggest player dead, there was still a battle waging on, and a village just lost the man who had been protecting it for years, even after being forced to pick the mantle again when his successor, the Yondaime Hokage, died so young. Never once had Sarutobi-sensei complained; never once had Sarutobi-sensei hated it. He loved his village, and served it well. The old man didn't have to do this along, and Jiraiya was glad to had been here to help.

Perhaps he should have felt something for Orochimaru to had died like that, a missing-nin and a disgrace to his village, but he did not. For him, Orochimaru's death was like drawing in fresh air. Sarutobi-sensei had done what Jiraiya could never had done. The late Hokage hadn't been the only one who could not kill off his heart to do what he needed to do. How many times had he fought Orochimaru trying to get him back to the village, where he could have killed him instead? Too many to count until he gave up.

Enough, no more thinking about it. A half of his genin team was now gone. Jiraiya was the only one who was still loyal to Konohagakure alive. He still had a village to serve. As he said before, there was still a battle waging on. He picked up the Hokage, and walked on. Enma, who released his technique as soon as the two inside the barrier died, had gestured him not to leave yet. "The deed is done, but do not despair, young one. Hiruzen had lived and died as a true shinobi, and a fantastic Hokage."

"Yes."

"Perhaps you shall be the same." Enma said, cryptically. Had Jiraiya not have a thousand other thoughts in his mind at the moment, he would have thought hard on that, but he just nodded at the boss summon of the monkeys. Enma walked away, and bent down to retrieve the Kusanagi blade, which was wedged into the rooftop, handle jutting out.

"Farewell, Jiraiya-kun." The Monkey King boomed from a distance over, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He too walked away with his teacher in his hand. The others will see soon.

And like him, Konohagakure would weep.

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N**: I hope you liked the chapter. Took a bit to write, as you can see. Freaking too long for my tastes. Some things were easy to write, and then some weren't. But fuck yes, I'm done with Chūnin Exams and the Invasion Arc. You do not know how happy I truly am.

I added Jiraiya in the battle between Orochimaru and Hiruzen. It kind of bugged me that Jiraiya wasn't a part of the fight in canon. Seriously, canon had Jiraiya deal with Orochimaru's snake summons in the original _Naruto_ only. What else he was doing? He had to have done some other things. Now, maybe it was a stretch here since he also dealt with Gaara, because Naruto couldn't (thanks to him not have access to the Kyūbi's chakra and lacked the ability to summon the toads), but I believe he could have joined the battle after. As for the snake summons, I think Jiraiya could spare making a clone, summoning another toad, and have the help of the ANBU to deal with them. It might be taxing on the chakra but Kage-level shinobi have been seen doing some ridiculous things in canon, seriously.

Some other things I added, I'm sure you noticed. Naruto has shown some competency in chakra flow covering his entire body (although it hasn't been perfected yet, seeing as he gotten cut up still); Gamabunta showed some senjutsu off, which I am sure he is not capable of in canon but his son, Gamakichi is; and Jiraiya's usage of the Fire Sealing Method to stop the Sound Four's Four Violet Flames Formation. I figured the Four Violet Flames Formation is made of fire (or acts as such), and so Jiraiya's technique could stop it. That's head canon for you. I also reasoned (in my head) that even if Sarutobi could do the same fūinjutsu as Jiraiya, he wouldn't had gotten the chance to do so. Orochimaru wasn't banking on Jiraiya, and so, yeah.

Sorry to some Sasuke fans who may I think I have made him seem weak, but in all honesty, I wanted to portray a Gaara who was on another level compared to Naruto and Sasuke, which is apparent in canon from the get-go that Gaara is much stronger than them at this point, no matter how much training they received, and when using his demon mode, it's just another gap. I think I was being fair. He didn't die, did he? Don't worry. I'm sure Sasuke will get his chance to shine some time down the line. Lord knows you cannot ignore how powerful this ass gets later on.

Anyway, how about that? Both Sarutobi and Orochimaru died. What does that mean for Orochimaru's followers? Ooh, and what's this letter Sarutobi's talking about? We will have to see soon.

Thanks for reading, and I shall be back shortly.

Translation List:

Fūka Hōin – Fire Sealing Method

Gamadaira: Kageyatsuri no Jutsu – Toad Flatness: Shadow Manipulation

Katon: Endan – Fire Release: Flame Bullet

Kagemane no Jutsu – Shadow Imitation Technique

Kokuangyo no Jutsu – Bringer-of-Darkness Technique

Kongōnyoi – Adamantine Staff (as in Transformation: Adamantine Staff)

Mizuame Teppō – Starch Syrup Gun

Sennen Goroshi – One Thousand Years Of Death

Shiki Fūjin – Dead Demon Consuming Seal

Shishienjin – Four Violet Flames Formation

Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique

Suiton: Teppōdama – Water Release: Gunshot

Technique List:

Water Release: Six Great Gunshots (Suiton: Roku Idaina Jūsei) – The user summons six senjutsu-influenced cannonball-sized water spheres around them, blasting the enemy with them. It is enough to be completely wipe out several enemies at once, and even shred through the strongest of defenses. The blasts of water can cover an extreme amount of distance, depending who shoots the attack. For a user such as Gamabunta, it can be launched to extreme distances. Like Water Release: Gunshot, this move is effected by gravity, meaning gravity makes the spheres brutally stronger in power if launched at a downward angle.

Rank: None

Technique Class: Offensive

Type/Classification: Ninjutsu, Senjutsu

Hand Seals: Ram → Tiger

Range: All ranges

Users: Gamabunta


	8. VIII

Disclaimer: Yes.

**A/N: **I admit, no action in this one. Nevertheless, enjoy.

* * *

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 8_

_**Evening of the Invasion of Konohagakure by Oto and Sunagakure...**_

The last active sannin in Konohagakure arrived at the Hokage Residence, the very mansion many of the Hokage spent their reign living in. Of course, only three Hokage have spent their time here. Minato never did so, said he wanted to live in the village, and seem like he was one of the people. Jiraiya himself had been here a few times, visiting Sarutobi-sensei – when his late teacher's wife was around, and a few times when she had died – but he hadn't been too intimate with the place. Fortunately, he only had to worry about making it to the front gate.

The current jōnin commander was there to greet him. That commander being Shikaku Nara, an experience ninja of the force for many years and current head of his clan, the Nara Clan. The 38-year old man had an excellent service history, and was the very testament of why the Nara Clan was feared inside and outside Konohagakure. In fact, the Third Shinobi World War was won because of his role as jōnin commander even back then, serving as the village's tactician. If you brought him one scenario and needed a solution, his mind would immediately think of twenty ways to solve it in a very short time. Those Nara, man. Excellent allies.

Shikaku Nara unfolded his arms, and sent Jiraiya a slight but nonetheless respectful bow. "Jiraiya-sama, good evening. A hell of a day we just had."

Jiraiya bowed back. "Indeed. I can't wait for be over with it. I need a cold beer, and a babe in my lap. You know what I mean?"

"I don't really have to worry about the woman part, but I would definitely love a cold beer. Unfortunately, my wife isn't very keen on my drinking, especially late at night."

Jiraiya chuckled. "Probably one of the reasons I never got tied down. Life's too short to not be running around, and not enjoying yourself."

Shikaku shook his head with a strained smile. "Unfortunately, not all of of us are lucky to live that life. Or willing to. Anyway, shall we get this over with so we can get home and rest for the night?"

Jiraiya gestured him to lead, and the Nara clansman did, placing a key into the keyhole of the door, and opening the doors to the Hokage Residence. Jiraiya ignored most of the posh and swanky furniture inside the place, and focused more at the way they were going. If memory served him well here, they were on their way to Sarutobi-sensei's study.

Soon enough, they were in a large room with a sparse amount but still nice furniture; sitting chairs, a large book shelf circling the entire room, and a desk in the middle with a chair sitting at it. Jiraiya ran his fingertips on the wooden table, adorned with several scrolls and papers on top. The papers were piled up in a neat stack, looking intimidating. All things the Sandaime hadn't finished filling out. However, that wasn't his main focus. Instead, Jiraiya was focused on the scrolls instead. "Are these the letters Sarutobi-sensei were speaking about?"

"Yes, they are. Pick the one farthest left. That's the first one he wanted you to read."

Jiraiya nodded and did a little sigh, before unraveling the scroll. _'Time to get down to business then.'_

"_Jiraiya__,_

"_I am writing this to you for the same reason I will write a letter to Naruto. The Ch__ūnin Exams draw near, and I await the tournament with equaling anticipation and trepidation. I fear that the Exams will be the end of my reign as the Hokage. I fear Orochimaru will end up killing me. I am not in my prime, Jiraiya; I have not been in my prime for years. Simple training would have sufficed, but nothing so much in a month. I am, after all, not young and spry like our certain resident Uzumaki. Years in the office without stepping out for a battle has significantly made me weaker, and I am but a shell of a shinobi I used to be._

That was pretty bad of him to think like that… But maybe it wasn't that far from the truth. Sensei struggled in that last battle. He certainly was not in his prime, and definitely not fighting with his best.

"_Yes, perhaps this is not how a Hokage should talk about himself to one of his subjects, but I feel like admitting this to you. You are more than one of my subjects, but a man I have come to care for like a son, really. Yes, I felt the same once for Tsunade and Orochimaru, but they have abandoned the village. Yes, I say this. Orochimaru has become perverted and sick, demented and irredeemable. I shall make sure if I die in the upcoming battle, I will try my best to rectify my past mistakes dealing with him. Words cannot alone express my regrets about Orochimaru._

_'Sensei sounded like he was already preparing to use the __**Shiki Fūjin**__,' _Jiraiya thought with a grimace. _'That's horrible for him to believe that he needed it to beat Orochimaru.'_

"_As for Tsunade, I still care for her, but she has abandoned her duties, her country, because she could not get over her own issues dealing with her former lover, and also her brother. I wept for the souls who have died in the Second Shinobi World War, as some of those souls were close friends, and family of mine. You, who have always had no parents, and you, who lost friends of your own, wept but you had gotten back up, and let go. You stood tall when things were falling apart – I have always admired that about you. I expected Tsunade of the same, but she failed me._

Jiraiya had to stop at that. That was… surprising. He never knew Sarutobi-sensei had those thoughts of his students. While it was flattering to hear Sarutobi-sensei had a high opinion on him, the less than flattering feelings he had for Tsunade was shocking. He could understand the disappointment he felt at Tsunade quitting as a shinobi, but for him to say she "failed him?" That was surprising uncharacteristic of him to say.

"_As harsh as it sounded, she failed me._

"_As terrible as it was, Orochimaru failed me._

"_But you, you have always made me proud to call you my student._

"_You, Jiraiya… Ah, yes, the gallant Jiraiya – forever roaming, but always serving his country, his countrymen, and his Hokage. You have done well._

"_Thus, Jiraiya, I feel it prudent to ask you one final thing of you, and it is selfish, I know, but I felt like you were best suited for it. I have spoken to my advisers, and they have approved, but I will leave the final choice to you._

Oh _no_. He could feel butterflies form in his stomach. What did his sensei have planned for him? He wouldn't be worrying if he didn't think he knew what it was.

"_What I ask of you is not easy, and is – again – very selfish, but I need to know Konohagakure will put in good hands, in the hands of someone who has always served the country first, and his needs second._

"_I ask of you, Jiraiya, to become the Godaime Hokage._

Yep, he had a feeling that was coming. That didn't make it any less shocking. Him? The Hokage? Him, the slacker of the group of the Sannin? He was never a sort of genius like Orochimaru, or was from a legendary clan like Tsunade, who was the granddaughter of a Senju _and _an Uzumaki. He was an orphan with no clan ties, no bloodline, and no special upbringing. He had to work hard for his own.

"_Perhaps you are scrunching up your face in confusion, maybe even downright refusing already, but I truly believe you are the best candidate in the village. Out of the strongest shinobi in the village, there is no other choice. Kakashi Hatake is much like Tsunade: too into himself and is still fighting his demons. He is immensely strong and experienced, but it wouldn't be wise to give him the position now – not until he is ready. Maito Gai is extremely strong, but is not so respected. He is better a soldier than a village leader. I do not think the world is ready for a Kage who only wear green tight body suits, Jiraiya. Shikaku Nara will downright refuse and call it "troublesome." He will also reason he is better as a strategist, and an adviser than he is as a leader. He will even have a very convincing argument ready for such. I already know it. Naruto Uzumaki, as much as I believe he will one day become the Hokage, is still a growing boy who needs to gain more strength, more responsibility, and more wisdom before he is ready to do such a thing. Only you are the best, suitable candidate._

Why was he the best candidate? He was a borderline-hedonistic shinobi who loved to travel, to drink, to have different women in his bed every night, and loved to never be in one place for a long time. He studied the plants, he studied the stars, studied new places he visited, and he studied people, but he never liked being in one place forever. He was thus good for the position of being the one running the spy network. It worked for him. He got to explore the world outside his village, he got to relax, and to reflect. Why was he suited for the job?

Sarutobi-sensei was right in thinking Jiraiya believed there would be others better than him. Shikaku Nara was better by a whole lot. He was what Konoha needed in a leader: strong, experienced, clever and highly intelligent. He was not afraid of doing what was needed of him for the good of his country, and would be excellent. Hell, Tsunade was more up to the task of filling in the role for Hokage than him. She was serious, had the right blood for the position (being a Senju and all), and would be an excellent Hokage – all she needed to be is convinced to clean up her act to do so. Plus, her amazing knowledge of medical ninjutsu was only rivaled by the Shodai Hokage. That would definitely be an asset to the village.

"_You are the representation of the Will of Fire. You have stood for what was right to do. You have never deserted your village for selfish reasons. You have stayed loyal. You have served us outstandingly. You have never strayed from the path. Even when things have gotten dark, you stood there, holding the torch, to light the way. Tsunade and Orochimaru could never do that. Furthermore, you have what they do not: respect. You have the respect of the current ninja force – all of them. Tsunade's efforts and framework of modern medical ninjutsu in the world are to be lauded and respected, but she herself is not. Orochimaru is disgraced completely, and his name is tarnished. He had conducted _live _experiments on people, snatching and kidnapping orphans for his own ambitions. The great Jiraiya has been, and stayed, great. You have the entire respect and adoration of all of our ninja. The village would accept you. My advisers would accept you – perhaps begrudgingly, but they would accept you. The Fire Daimyō himself would accept you completely. There is, like I said before, no other suitable candidate._

"_My advisers would perhaps disagree and say one more is a good candidate, but I do not believe so, Jiraiya. You know who I speak of._

There was only one person he could think that could cause Sarutobi-sensei to be wary.

"_At this time, you may have noticed a mark on the top of this letter. Good. This seal is keyed to your DNA. Once you placed your hand on the paper, it has become readable to you and you only. This was something me and Shikaku came up with before the Exams once again started._

This was getting serious. He had noticed the mark, but he didn't pay much heed to it. In fact, it looked nothing out of the ordinary but the special marking that the Hokage had approved of this letter. Now that he did, he could see the complex writing, and miniature layers in the seal. How interesting. He would have to view over it more later.

"_Danzō Shimura is the candidate my advisers would choose as Hokage, but I do not agree. I do not trust him. I cannot trust him. He is too steeped in darkness, and the Hokage is a position in which a person must walk in the light. Danzō has – many times – tried to undermine my position as Hokage, but none so much than five years ago, yes. He is an extremist, and while his love for the country is as strong as mine, his methods to keep the peace are wrong. More so than that, he has gone too much times behind my back, and would rather plunge Konohagakure in another armed conflict than try to keep the peace between the other major countries out there. You will do well to be wary of that man._

"_I have another thing you must read. It will be keyed to your DNA just like the scroll, but only if you accept the position of Hokage are you allowed to see it, Jiraiya. Should you choose not, please, I implore you to not allow Danzō the position. I also ask you to – because I do believe you will try – to not seek a Hokage in Tsunade. She, like Kakashi, is too deep into her sorrows. Perhaps, more so than Kakashi. She will not be suitable, and until she magically comes back to the village fixed and ready, she will never be. I know how you feel about her Jiraiya, and you have hope in her, but I have grown cynical in my old age._

"_Forgive me, Jiraiya. I am selfish, and perhaps wrong, but as Hokage, my word is bond. Choose wisely. Truly, I hope that this letter shall never come into your hands. Perhaps I shall live the upcoming battle, and perhaps I will be allowed a few more years to continue this, and _perhaps_ a newer candidate like Naruto can take my place, but that is whimsical thinking, and like I said before, I am too old to think such._

"_Thank you, and farewell,_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi."_

And that was the end of the letter, which by the time Jiraiya was done, the toad sage was rubbing his temples rapidly. He turned to the Nara next to him, narrowing his eyes. "I assume you read the letter."

"I was there when he wrote it." The jōnin commander of Konohagakure correctly softly. "He's right though: I would definitely refuse the job. It's too troublesome for me."

"And it's not troublesome for a guy like me?" Jiraiya questioned rhetorically, rubbing the back of his head. "You know, a _very long _time ago, I wanted to be Hokage. Then when I realized that Orochimaru would get that position, I decided it wasn't worth it. I felt, for the longest, that I was always the weakest one of the group. I was the goof-ball, who hadn't accomplished things Orochimaru and Tsunade did. They were always praised for their talents. Both were child prodigies; I was not. I was seen as that guy who was a pervert, and nothing else. It was only after the Second Shinobi World War I started to see a difference. By that time, the war changed Orochimaru. He became more twisted, demented. He always seemed off, but none such like after the second great war. He did things that was terrible – even in our line of work. Perhaps in hindsight, he has always been bad. Then, Tsunade left, and he got worse. It became so bad that when the Third Shinobi World War ended, and Minato was named the Hokage, Orochimaru stopped being so secretive with his experiments, and he was caught quickly. By that time, however, I wasn't very much in the village after I accepted the job of being Konohagakure's leader in their spy network."

Jiraiya walked over to the large mansion window, staring at the skies' beautiful full moon that loom right over. "I got out to see the world; I got to experience it firsthand. Sometimes, as a working man in small towns; sometimes, as an aristocrat in capitals. Sometimes, as myself in neutral territories. I got out, and enjoyed life for once. I didn't have to worry so much about being second-rate to Orochimaru; I didn't have to worry about being a jōnin after Minato died; I didn't have to worry about anything. I stopped teaching, stopped training so much. I felt I had indeed reached a limit, and I didn't want to go any further. 'Let the old man choose who he wanted to be Hokage,' I said to myself. I would serve Konohagakure, but I would also enjoy my life. I sat down, wrote, lived life, had a girl or two a night, smoke and drank, because I needed to unwind. I was too stressed."

Jiraiya turned back to look into the dark eyes of the Nara clan leader. "And now, Sarutobi-sensei seemed to have chosen his successor, again."

"What will you do, Jiraiya-sama?" Shikaku said. Jiraiya had not known why he even said all of that to the man. Jiraiya doubted the man cared or wanted to care about Jiraiya's spiel. To him, Shikaku needed one thing and one thing only: a leader.

The white-haired man, for once, had no snappy remark back. Nothing flippant to say, and nothing to say jokingly. For once, like he had been since Minato died, he felt stressed, and worse of all, a little lost.

The Hokage was a position he didn't want, trying to find reasons to refuse the position. He still, in his heart, believed there was someone better. Maybe not Kakashi. Jiraiya hadn't had much interaction with the man, but since he was very close with the late Yondaime Hokage like Jiraiya had been, and also seen the death of his team, he could understand why Sarutobi-sensei didn't believe in allowing Kakashi the title. Plus, the Sandaime Hokage had more experience dealing with Kakashi as well. Since the man was too into himself, and he didn't know Gai nearly enough to trust him with the position, Jiraiya was running out of options. Shikaku has and would continue refusing, and no one wanted that old bastard Danzō in the seat. Shikaku didn't seem like he wanted him either.

In fact, Shikaku stared at him almost… expectantly. Like, he expected him to take up the mantle. "I want your honest opinion, Shikaku-san. What do you think of Tsunade?"

Shikaku gave him a neutral look, as he folded his arms behind his back. "Tsunade is, no doubt, an unknown. According to _what_ I know, she has not returned, been in, or even contacted Konohagakure ever since she left. Our feelers have stated seeing her sometimes in Hi no Kuni, but never close enough to Konohagakure. All she has done is wasted her own savings, and her family's savings, on drinking excessively and gambling spots. She's not what she has been before, Jiraiya-sama. Plus, there is no telling if she has kept her skills polished with how long she has been gone. I have to agree with what Sarutobi-sama has written in the letter."

"So you would be opposed to her becoming the Hokage?"

"If she can put her past behind her, return, and be the leader we need, I would not. For now, I don't recommend her being elected as such. She has lost complete political clout with a lot of our ninja, and the Fire Daimyō – the one who truly has the last say in electing a candidate – has favored you for a number of years. The Daimyō has asked Sarutobi-sama many times when will he find a replacement, and our Lord has always suggested _you, _Jiraiya-sama, as Sarutobi-sama's successor." Shikaku sighed deeply. "That's all I'm saying."

Jiraiya grunted in displeasure. "I want to find Tsunade."

"My lord, our village needs a leader _now_." The commander declared, frowning deeply at the older man. "Tsunade is incredibly elusive, and it will take us months on end to track her. There is simply no time to look for her, then assess her skills and state of mind, then try to convince her to come back – which in itself is another difficult task – and then return her home. Konohagakure is reeling from the invasion of Suna and Oto, my lord. This is a crucial chance for Konoha's enemies to take a shot at her. We do not need another conflict with any nation. This is in my own opinion, as a tactician."

Jiraiya could not argue with that logic, not at all. No matter how much he wanted to, it was completely perfect logic. The sannin only sighed. "No other person, it seems."

"No other person." Shikaku shook his head, then sighed himself. "Troublesome. Perhaps we can just sleep on this. You came to see the letter like Sarutobi-sama asked you to. I would suggest thinking about it for a few days – maybe about a week at most. I believe that is as much as I can suggest you can spare before the advisers come themselves to ask you of your decision."

"Ask? More like _bug_." Jiraiya snorted humorlessly. "Alright. Tell you what: I'll come seek you out. Maybe… by tomorrow, we meet here again?"

"That's acceptable."

Jiraiya nodded. "Alrighty then. I think I'm going to skip both the beer and babe tonight. I'm going to go to my little hotel room, and sleep it off. Good night, Shikaku-san."

"The same to you, Jiraiya-sama. I only hope you make the right decision. Konohagakure needs this, sir."

Jiraiya sighed. "Oh, I know. I know." He was tired, definitely. It was all a long, drawn out day.

The future didn't seem so simple either.

* * *

_"Yo, Sarutobi-jiji! Glad you could make it today."_

_The old Hokage grunted, stepping inside the Ramen Ichiraku stand, and sat down. "You never eat anything else, Naruto, do you? I swear, it is always ramen with you." The old man groused. Nevertheless, Sarutobi sent a kindly smile to the waitress who walked out to the counter from the restaurant's kitchen. "Good afternoon, Ayame-chan."_

_"Sup, Ayame-nēchan?!" Naruto grinned._

_"Good afternoon, Hokage-sama, and good afternoon, Naruto." The brunette bowed respectfully to the village's head leader. "We're pleasantly surprised and grateful to have you here today. You usually don't stop by here."_

_The Hokage shrugged. "I allowed him to choose what we were going to have for lunch. Although, it was against my better judgment. My first choice would have not been ramen- uh, no offense, Ayame-chan."_

_"You insulter of our ways! Ramen is food for the gods, old timer!" Naruto bellowed quite dramatically. "Ain't that right, nē-chan?!"_

_Ayame only chuckled at the blond. "Sure, kiddo, though I think I can forgive Hokage-sama. After all, he's got a point. All this ramen is hardly good for you and your height, Naruto." Both the Hokage and Ayame ignored Naruto's immediate indignant cry. "Alright, so, what would you like today, you two?"_

_"Ah, a veggie ramen for me with a side order of terayaki-glazed fish balls, and anything our Naruto would like to eat."_

_"The usual, Naruto?" Ayame gave the boy a knowing look and smile. She already started to walk away from the two shinobi._

_"The usual!" Naruto grinned. "A bowl of miso and then some more!"_

_"Coming right up!" The brown-haired girl yelled back, disappearing back into the kitchen._

_"So, Naruto, how goes the training, my boy? Ebisu-kun's going too hard on you?" The Hokage asked._

_"Nah, he's not so bad. I'm a little stumped on a part in the training, but it's going alright." Naruto answered back. "Man, I can't wait to get some ramen in me!"_

_"As always." Sarutobi snorted derisively, though Naruto could tell he was kidding around. "Well, that's good to hear. No complications with your chakra, yes?"_

_"Nope, but I'll let you know. If a snake guy comes put a seal on me, I'll let you know first."_

_"Smart boy." The Hokage affectionately rubbed Naruto's head, his fingers scrubbing Naruto's hair back and forth. Naruto didn't like a whole lot of people doing that, but didn't mind the old man doing so. "The month is almost up, Naruto. I hope everything you have been doing with Ebisu-kun has paid off."_

_"Yeah, things are looking swell really. Ebisu-sensei may be stiff, but he's actually a pretty cool teacher..." Then Naruto looked a little miffed by something. "Kinda makes you wonder what that would be like if he was my permanent one..."_

_"So, you're saying you dislike having Kakashi-kun as your teacher?"_

_"Sometimes." Naruto admitted. "I mean, I feel like I barely learned anything from him, and I know Ebisu-sensei keeps telling me that he took Sasuke for a reason to train, but I just can't help but to feel left out. Maybe I wouldn't be feeling like that if he spent more time teaching us instead of slacking off."_

_"Hmm, you know, when you become a chūnin, you are no longer obligated with staying on your assigned team. Do you think you will try to learn from another teacher? Perhaps Ebisu? Remember: he is your temporary teacher for the month. Unless he takes his time out for free to teach you, you will have to hire him as a tutor."_

_Naruto hadn't thought of that honestly. "But, then, who can help me finish my earth chakra training?"_

_"Well, perhaps Kakashi-kun."_

_Naruto scoffed. "I don't think he'll have time doing any of that. I mean, he's still teaching Sasuke and all."_

_"Naruto, perhaps you don't realize it but Kakashi isn't doing this because he wants to. In all honesty, I was the one who told Kakashi to focus training Sasuke-kun this month." Sarutobi raised his hand, trying to dispel Naruto's surprised cries. "Please let me finish before you start hollering. I did it because, in all honesty, Sasuke has always been in dark waters, ever since the massacre of his entire clan. This business with Orochimaru has not been the start of it. Sasuke isn't what you are, Naruto-kun."_

_"Huh? What's that?" The blond questioned._

_"Bound by ties to the village. Do you get what I am saying, Naruto? Sasuke is… hungry for power. It isn't like what you long for. Your quest in life to become stronger so you can protect those of the village, and your loved ones. Sasuke, on the other hand, wishes to become strong enough to kill his brother, Itachi. He only looks to gain power because of it, and nothing else. He fights for __nothing else. A dark path of revenge is his life and it needs to change."_

_"Sasuke isn't bad, old man!" Naruto exclaimed, getting angry that his favorite Hokage was bashing his teammate/rival/part-time friend. "You make it sound like he's going to do something wrong."_

_"I am not saying he's a bad person – simply misguided. It has always been like this. He has always been unreceptive to people, unwilling to let them in, and only worrying about getting stronger. Orochimaru has corrupted Sasuke further. A dark power such as the __Ten no Juin is tempting to Sasuke, my boy. That's exactly what Orochimaru wants: for Sasuke to become a slave to that power, to rely on it to give him strength, and to go to him for more power."_

_Naruto wasn't convinced. "Sasuke isn't stupid. He's not going to use that power, Sarutobi-jiji, or go to that snake bastard. Furthermore, he _has_ ties. He has his team – he has us. Why would he want to throw that away?" But Naruto didn't miss the meaningful look the Hokage gave him for a moment._

_The Hokage merely looked at him evenly. "I hope you are right. Understand this however: your anger for Kakashi is understandable, but it is not truly his fault. Kakashi needed to see after the boy; to train him in order for him to get him to not rely on Orochimaru's seal. I hope you understand. You know about dark power, Naruto; how it can corrupt you if you let it."_

_Naruto slowly nodded, getting what the man was saying. There had been two situations he had been in that he had to rely on the Kyūbi, and both had been times he would not like to repeat. "Still, I can't help but to feel like things would be better if Kakashi-sensei trained us beforehand. Maybe that's why I'm still annoyed by it."_

_"And you are right to feel like that. I do not know why Kakashi decided to do what he did, and then put you three in the exams if you were barely trained, but here you are: in the semi-finals of the exams, going one-on-one with Neji Hyūga. I would say you did just fine." Sarutobi sighed. "Enough of that. I made the call; you can get mad at me if you like. Besides, I already had someone else to see to your training, even before Kakashi asked Ebisu to train you for the month. Unfortunately, he could not get here in time. Fortunately, he did make it here, and now, I will have him train with you next month."_

_"So, no more Ebisu-sensei?" Naruto couldn't help but to feel a little… saddened by that. Ebisu wasn't that bad of a guy actually. He was surprisingly meticulous, attentive when teaching Naruto, paying attention to everything Naruto was doing, and very helpful with mistakes. He was always there for help, and then some. Besides Iruka-sensei, former teachers Naruto had never stayed out late to help him out with something he was struggling with._

_"I am sorry." Sarutobi obviously caught Naruto's tone of voice. "If you can convince him to either train you for free or hire him for his services – which I doubt either will be viable options, because I have assigned other duties for him – I would say your chances are slim. Fortunately, your training will continue. I have another option for you. There is another person I want you to meet. The man I have for you is a master at using Earth Release techniques – much more than Ebisu, truly. In fact, he's the former teacher of your hero, the Yondaime Hokage. You'll be learning from quite a great shinobi."_

_"No shit?" Naruto perked up, if a little bit._

_"Naruto, I 'shit' you not." Sarutobi rolled his eyes at Naruto's crassness, but he had an amused smile on his face. "Have I let you down ever?"_

_The blond chuckled. "I guess not."_

_"Then there you go."_

_"Hmm, maybe I could do… both? Learn from both Ebisu-sensei and the new guy?"_

_"Maybe." The Hokage allowed with a shrug and a smile. Steam billowed into the air above them. "Ah, looks like our food is done."_

_Ayame smiled at both. "Here you go." She set down Naruto's food, and bowed to the Hokage. "Your veggie ramen is coming, milord."_

_The elder Hokage waved his hand, "Do not worry. I am in no hurry to leave and go back to work. Paperwork is one of the Hokage's many foes." The Hokage smiled at the blond genin, who was ripping his chopsticks out of its package. "A foe you will have to deal with one day, Naruto-kun."_

_The sixteen-year-old waitress giggled, and Naruto guffawed himself. "Nah, I'll be using my clones to go deal with that crap while I'm out saving princesses from snowy ice lands, ya old coot."_

_Ayame shook her head in exasperation. "So disrespectful, Naruto."_

_The blond grinned back. "What? The Hokage likes me calling him that."_

_"Hmph, I would not say that..." The Hokage grunted. "I think I am still sane for my age."_

_Lunch time was dwindling down, and it would be back to the same grind for both of them: Naruto with his training, and the Hokage tackling the many issues of the village. Naruto was finished with his last bowl of ramen, and the Hokage had long finished his hearty meal. Small talk again began between the two, with sometimes Ayame joining in the conversation. For the most of it, Sarutobi and Naruto talked while Ayame tended to other customers._

_"Ah, time is up, Naruto-kun. I am about to get back to my office. Ah, check, Ayame-san." Sarutobi called over the girl, bringing out his wallet, but was surprised to see Naruto push his hand down. "Naruto?"_

_"I got this, Sarutobi-jiji. Relax. After all, I asked you out to lunch, right?"_

_The Hokage blinked, before smiling. "Oh? This is new."_

_"Well, gotta act responsible sometimes, right? After all, I'm going to be a chūnin!" Naruto grinned. "That's the point of all this: being responsible."_

_"Seems like you learned the answer to your previous question. I guess I will be seeing you soon at the Mission Assignment Desk, begging for a B-rank, right, Chūnin Naruto Uzumaki?"_

_"Yeah, of course!" Naruto said, without shame in his tone. "You got to promise me though that we'll go out and celebrate, jiji! I'll be nice, and allow you to choose the location."_

_"Well that would be nice for once..."_

_"Yeah, because that means you're paying!"_

* * *

_**After the Invasion of Konohagakure, Four Days Later…**_

All that was a painful memory from a few days ago before the start of the semi-finals of the Chūnin Exams; a sad reminder that none of that would be happening. There would be no great celebration, no grand party congratulating him on getting promoted, and no old man laughing with him joyfully as he was a step closer to taking the job of Hokage from him.

He had been up since the crack of dawn, yet hadn't done nothing. Naruto laid in the darkness of his room in his bed, playing that memory again in his head for the third time today. It had been so long since he had felt so lifeless.

And outside looked lifeless. Morning has risen an hour ago, but yet, it had been cloudy since last night. A far cry from the usual weather in Konohagakure. Usually, the Sun was almost never obscured by clouds in the skies. Instead, it was a gloomy day in Konohagakure, the day after where one of the greatest shinobi he knew died in a stupid invasion that was quelled in one day. The weather seemed to reflect that gloominess as well; there was no Sun, and it was so dark outside. It looked like it wanted to rain, but it hadn't yet. The overcast weather had smothered Konoha's skies for a while now, and yet, it had yet to rain. He rather it came down already, and got it over with.

Maybe if it rained, it would make him do the same too, because he couldn't cry. As much as he loved the old man, he could not cry. He wouldn't. There was too much pride in his soul, and he told himself a long time ago that crying didn't solve a damn thing. To get even, to avenge the old man, he would have to work twice as hard at becoming the Hokage, wouldn't he? Orochimaru, the snake fuck who killed the Sandaime, was dead himself, so there was no one to truly get revenge on. The best type of revenge now was to not let it shake him, and show the fuckers who had their hand in this, that they didn't defeat him. Besides, Sarutobi-jiji wouldn't have wanted Naruto being so down about things for long. He instead would have encouraged Naruto to get stronger, to be better, and to live his life the way he wanted it.

Naruto had to grow up, accept that in this life, people died, and go on with his life. It would be a lesson he was sure he would have a very hard time learning.

So much things he wanted, he never got.

That's just how life was.

He still didn't feel like he had a lot of energy to get up. Soon he would have to.

It was just going to be hard seeing the guy who he looked up to as a grandfather in that coffin. He did have a funeral to attend to, after all. Shit, he didn't even own a damn black cloak – the thing people usually wor-

A knock began at his door, and Naruto glazed his eyes over to the direction of his door. He would have ignored it, but then the knocks became more frequent and louder. Groaning, he got up from his place in his bed, and groused out, "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming. Hold your horses…"

Opening the door, he blinked as he stared at the people in front of him. "Ah, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei? You're here?"

"Well, what do you expect, Naruto?" Sakura questioned, looking annoyed at his question. He knew he seen Sakura about a few days ago, when the invasion was going on, but he hadn't really taken in her appearance. The first thing he noticed was her hair. Her hair was still in the same short cut, only most of her uneven edges and ends were cut properly. It was a far cry than it was in the Chūnin Exams Preliminaries. She looked nice though – she had on a light amount of make-up, eye shadow, dressed in a – for lack of a better word – nice black kimono, and the smell of her perfume entered his nose.

"You look nice, Sakura-chan." Naruto stated out loud, unabashedly.

Sakura sighed tiredly, but didn't seem too irritated at that. "Thank you, Naruto. Now, are we going to the funeral together or not? That was the reason we're here."

"Ah, yeah, yeah! Sorry about that, I just…" Naruto trailed off, not knowing how to say what he wanted to say.

Surprisingly, Sakura's eyes softened, and so did her voice. She knew how he felt about the Hokage. Naruto was – although strangely enough – very close to the Hokage, closer than anyone she knew. "Just get your outfit on, idiot. The funeral is around 10; its 8:30 now."

Naruto looked sheepish. "Um, well, I actually… don't have any funeral clothing."

The pink-haired girl's attitude immediately did a 180. "How do you not have-?!"

Kakashi patted Sakura on the shoulder as a silent gesture to calm her down. "It is not a problem, Naruto. All you really got to do is wear black. If we can't find you a traditional black kimono, we can always get you a nice black long sleeve shirt and pants."

"Ah, okay. Thanks, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto uttered, looking down. "Sorry for being trouble, guys."

"It's no trouble at all. You haven't been to a funeral before." Kakashi stated, barely seeing Sakura's emerald eyes of realization, or all that caring about it. His temperamental student could be kind of inconsiderate sometimes, and sometimes not that thoughtful, despite her intelligence. "Let's just get you something suitable to wear."

Naruto nodded. "Lemme go throw on some clothing and we can go to the store."

Sakura huffed and folded her arms. She looked vaguely embarrassed. "Just hurry up then."

The blond nodded again, and gestured them to come inside. It would have been the polite thing to do, even if his place wasn't in the best shape. "I wasn't expecting company, so excuse how my apartment looks."

"Hmph. You can at least attempt to clean up sometimes, Naruto. How come when I always come here, it looks like this place got hit by a tornado?" The female teammate of Team Kakashi complained.

Naruto smiled weakly, but did not respond to her comment. "I'll be right back."

When Naruto went into his room, Sakura was again patted on her shoulder by her teacher. "Ease up on him, Sakura. He's going through mourning. We all are."

"My point still stands though! It looks gross in here."

"Sakura…" Kakashi warned, looking at her with his one eye.

The pink-haired kunoichi flinched. "I suppose I can drop it…" Sakura sighed. "Sorry then."

"Don't say 'Sorry' to me. You know who you should do so for." Kakashi pointed to Naruto's room with an index finger, while he pulled out his signature perverted orange book from his pocket.

Sakura's face twitched in anger. "You're asking for a whole lot especially since you're reading that dirty stuff in front of me."

"When you get strong enough to stop me for doing so, then you can take it away from me, girlie. Until then, sit back and wait for our Naruto," Kakashi responded. He then lifted a finger and flicked to the next page of his book.

Sakura harrumphed for the second time today. Folding her arms, and pushing herself back into Naruto's couch, all she could do was ignore her teacher and wait for her knuckleheaded teammate to finish up getting dressed.

With Naruto, he knew without looking too hard in his closet that he needed to go shopping today. Naruto truly had little articles of black. It didn't take him long before coming back in the living room, and announcing that to his teammates. Kakashi merely nodded, and said they would simply make a quick stop at the store. With that, Naruto went to gather some boxers, a clean white t-shirt, and other necessary toiletries in order to get himself washed up. Not wanting to waste time with a shower, he decided just to wash up in his sink. A bird bath it was, but it would be sufficient enough to get him clean.

He threw on his jacket, which took something of a beating yesterday thanks to all the battling in the Chūnin Exams tournament, the matching pants, and his black sandals, and walked out with his teammates. He was off-duty, so he didn't have his headband. Sakura lacked hers too, which was usually on top of her head, framing her hair like a hairband. Kakashi, like always, had his, but it was more to cover his Sharingan eye. His last teammate, Sasuke, was still in the hospital for broken ribs, and other light injuries. So, there was no surprise he wasn't here.

The walk to the store was a quiet one. Usually, he would try talking to his crush, Sakura, and convince her to go on a date with him, only to fail and get screamed at. He didn't have the energy for it today, though. Sakura also didn't bother talking to him. It was interesting. Despite being on a team with her, Sasuke, and Kakashi for months, going on a year now, the person he least spoke to – outside of bothering her about going on a date with him – was Sakura. Then again, what did they have to talk about? All he liked was training, getting stronger, and ramen. Sakura was… well, he didn't know what she liked, really. Maybe he should learn how to talk to her without doing all of that, eh?

It didn't matter at this time anyway. It was something he noticed.

He silently took what he needed when he entered the shop, and spent no time looking around for anything else. He took a black pair of pants that many chūnin and jōnin wore. Then, he took a black long-sleeve shirt. He didn't see a cloak, so he decided to forget about it, like Kakashi-sensei had stated before.

It wasn't long before they proceeded to the place where they were holding the Hokage's funeral.

The smell of incense was strong in the air of the outside funeral of the Sandaime Hokage. On top of the Hokage's office, at the academy of the village, hundreds of people – villager and ninja alike – came to the funeral. All solemn and quiet; all dressed in black. Some were crying even – most seemed to be younger children and females. Naruto thought he saw Konohamaru, but was glad he didn't have to see the young boy cry. It might have had a similar effect on him.

So, a funeral. He had never gone to one before, and he never wanted to again. _Though_, a dark thought entered his head, _it probably won't be the last_.

The beginning part of the funeral – Kakashi-sensei referred to it as a "wake" – was something to behold. The Hokage, dressed in a black kimono, arms folded over his chest, looked ever so vulnerable and pale. It was a far cry from what he remembered the man as. Sarutobi-jiji looked perhaps even older than he once did. It was hard seeing him like that. Memories of the old man's sunny disposition, and lively self, came to mind.

He was truly gone. He was truly dead.

Naruto's eyes burned again, but he didn't dare let anything show. None of it.

He bit his lip hard, and clenched his fist harder, but he wouldn't dare cry.

He stood with his teacher and female teammate, and watched others stand down nearby them too. In the same aisle, he seen a few people he knew. Shikamaru, Chōji, and Ino came to view. Then, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Rock Lee, Tenten, and of course, their asshole teammate, Neji. He merely glanced in their direction for a second, before turning back. If they've seen him, then that was fine. If not, that was fine too. He didn't care all that much.

A man – Naruto believed it to be some sort of monk – came in front, and said some choice words in a form of a prayer. The prayer sounded nice, but he was hardly paying attention to it. He felt heavy and dizzy, and honestly, wanted to go home. He didn't dare leave though.

After the man said his words, he bowed to the crowd, and walked off. And with that, the gloomy, cloudy sky started to drizzle rain.

The rain continued onto the next day.

He woke up, and had his black shirt and black pants ready. Kakashi-sensei came to pick him up. Sakura-chan wasn't there. "She went on ahead with the Yamanaka girl," Kakashi later explained, referring to Ino Yamanaka. He wasn't surprised to not see Sasuke. His other teammate was still not cleared from the hospital. Of course, it had only been a few days though since the invasion.

Part two of the funeral commenced the next day, with people moving to put flowers at the podium where the Hokage's picture was at. They were pretty white flowers from the Yamanaka Clan's shop. Chrysanthemums, Kakashi-sensei called them. The white stood for "lamentation and grief." Kakashi had gotten some for him the other day, seeming to predict that he would need some for today. It was something he silently thanked his teacher for. He moved to put his flower to the podium, and then returned to his spot.

Naruto stood near his former peers, and Konohamaru, who was bawling his eyes out. Iruka-sensei was there to comfort the boy however, hugging him gently as he cried in his arms. Naruto didn't help comforting his younger friend. He had no energy for such.

He couldn't wait to go home. His eyes were starting to hurt.

* * *

Jiraiya himself came around to see the old man a while when the funeral was starting to close. A lot of people were there, and a lot were sorrowful. It just went to show you how much the Sandaime went and touched the hearts of these people.

…

He just hoped he did the same.

The toad sage sighed, somewhat in annoyance. _'Alright, alright. I suppose it's time to make my final decision, isn't it?' _He put his hands inside his pockets, and started walking towards the Hokage's suite in the Academy.

It was there he knew the elders would be at.

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N: **Alrighty. Enough of the filler. It's time to get back into some action instead in the next chapter. I had to get it out the way though, to set the next part of the story up.

I apologize with how long it took. Work, school, writer's block, and general other things of my life were really the things preventing me from rolling this out to you. Since in a few months, I'm going to focus more of my time in school, and leave the whole work thing alone, I should – the keyword being "should" – have more time to write. Well, at least the next chapter shouldn't take long.

The funeral had some elements of Japanese funerals that I read up. Of course, since this is all information from the internet, it can be disputed. Either way, I felt satisfied with it, and this chapter's purpose has been served.


	9. IX

**Disclaimer: **_Naruto_, I owe not. Support the official release, you shall.

**A/N: **I lied unfortunately about being more action-orientated in this chapter. Apologies. Nevertheless, enjoy.

* * *

_A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 9_

_**Evening of The Invasion of Konohagakure by Oto and Sunagakure…**_

They had been running all evening in the deep forests of Hi no Kuni, trying desperately to get to the border and pass into Oto no Kuni. There, the jurisdiction of Konoha's ANBU ended. His lungs felt on fire, and his legs felt worse. All he wanted to do was go hide, and rest for the remainder of the night. _Soon_, he told himself. People were already clamoring on stopping for the night to rest.

Feeling very tired himself, he told them to stop, much to everyone's relief. He had left them to decided who was going to keep the first watch, while he set himself in a tree to rest in. He let them because he was thinking on what to do next.

He reviewed what he knew. Orochimaru was dead. He didn't see the Sound Four escape the village with them. Gaara, the jinchūriki, from what he learned, was captured. The invasion was a failure.

Other little tidbits he knew: Hi no Kuni was a huge country. Getting to the Valley of the End would take a few hours more, but they had already been exhausted. At this pace, ANBU would be on their asses soon, and no doubt they had the borders locked down. They had numbers, and patrols all around the country, while Kabuto had men on their last fumes thanks to the battle they had been involved in earlier the day. This was truly going to be a problem for him. He was on the run, along with at least thirty other men, and had been on the run ever since he knew the battle was lost.

When he heard Orochimaru was dead, he immediately booked it out of the village of Konoha. He knew that it was over. The ones who didn't run were probably quickly apprehended, or killed, and Kabuto didn't like either fates for himself. So, he ran, and that was no easy feat. Others fled too – both Suna and Oto respectively, but the factions quickly spread out. Kabuto was followed by an entourage of men from Otogakure, and their numbers quickly dwindled escaping Konohagakure.

Too many people had died for Kabuto to count, and many of them had to sacrifice themselves just so the others could escape, and according to the men, Kabuto was their leader and they could not afford losing him. He didn't see it like that, but who was he to argue against their logic? It wasn't like it was going to stay like that.

_Orochimaru has fallen. Soon, Otogakure as well_, Kabuto noticed immediately. The failure of the invasion of Konohagakure left many of their men dead, and their leader was killed in action. While yes, Konohagakure was weakened, so too was Otogakure – by a huge margin as well. Konohagakure may have lost their Kage, but they still had their leaders while the rag-tag "village" of Oto had lost the one thing keeping them glued together.

Orochimaru was indeed that glue. The "village" of Oto was nothing more than several bases, places, and hideouts all around the continent that all swore allegiance to Orochimaru. The major hideout – the one Orochimaru once resided in – was in Oto no Kuni. It was where him, the Sound Four (formerly Sound Five), Kabuto himself, and the men and women they considered Orochimaru's strongest ninja, resided. More to the point, a lot of these ninja here were Orochimaru's most loyal. So, when the news of Orochimaru's demise spread like wildfire, and reached their ears, there were a lot of crying and anger going through the hearts of these men and women.

Kabuto himself felt something. Perhaps not sadness, or the need to mourn like some of these people here were doing, but something he felt. Orochimaru had been his mentor and leader for many years, the reason why he had survived for so long. He had helped him gain strength to become who he was today, and no one else could say the same. Orochimaru had sheltered him against the likes of Akatsuki, and the likes of Root. He was angry that Orochimaru lost indeed, and that Konoha had survived. However, he was angrier with Orochimaru than he was with the village he despised.

Yes, yes, most of what he was feeling about Orochimaru was anger. Orochimaru had lost to an (supposed) old, decaying fossil of a Hokage who was already past his prime. Perhaps with the help with Jiraiya, Hiruzen Sarutobi – the late Sandaime Hokage – had a better chance of winning the battle, but Orochimaru had boasted many times to him that he was stronger than both of them combined. He stated that the old man and Jiraiya were like tadpoles, and he was that snake looking to eat them all. Kabuto actually believed the man too, but now knew that was nothing more than arrogance.

Getting out of Hi no Kuni was almost impossible. ANBU patrolled everywhere. Things got bloody fast, too fast. If it wasn't for the help of some of his men, Kabuto would either end up dead, or worse, captured. He was too busy worrying about himself to be grateful however.

He felt nothing for Otogakure as a whole. All the people that were here he hated, and they hated him too. To Kabuto, there were two types of people here – and both types he hated, really.

First of the types were the sycophants of Orochimaru. They were all fire and hatred against Orochimaru's foes, while Kabuto himself was too worried about how he was going to escape all of this. Kimimaro, Orochimaru's biggest follower, would want to stomp up to Konohagakure and burn their village down. It was a foolish endeavor. These were the type who wanted to keep fighting, even until their last breaths, not knowing when to retreat, and fight another day. Kimimaro himself had nothing else to live for. Orochimaru was dead, and he was terminally ill, only surviving and breathing by Kabuto's help, and his own willpower alone. A lot of those men in Otogakure were like that. Orochimaru was almost like some sort of father figure to them, even though Kabuto had been close enough to the snake sage to know he thought of them as mere pawns, instead of his children.

The other type of people there were the wildcards – the people who were only loyal to Orochimaru because he was the strongest. Many clans here were originally from the land Orochimaru conquered and ruled as his own with the name of Oto no Kuni. Orochimaru, before all of this begun, helped free a country from a big civil war that its lord, the daimyō, was doing nothing to stop. People got sick of the fighting, and only came together when Orochimaru united them. After that, Orochimaru's tyrannical rule began, and the people – who were still weak and couldn't fight back – only bowed and turned their heads for more abuse from their new master. He admitted to himself that he fit more in this camp than the other, but he wasn't big on these people because they seemed like the type to only unite because they had no choice. Now that Orochimaru was dead, they had no person to leash them. They had no master, and things would get messy very soon indeed.

Both sides would be at each other's necks soon, and Kabuto wanted no part of it.

The death of Orochimaru would reach all the corners of the continent no later than a week. Everyone and their mother would know that Orochimaru was dead, surely. Orochimaru was seen as the big, bad boogeyman of the shinobi world, of course. Despised and hated by every nation out there, and a big danger to anyone who encountered him, he was on everyone's – for lack of a better word – shit list. Now that the snake sage was dead, his enemies would now focus on getting revenge. Word had gotten out that Orochimaru had his own personal village – how long it would be until Orochimaru's enemies came down on them?

So, he knew what he had to do.

Run, run until he could not run anymore. Hide amongst the crowds if need be. Don't make the obvious trek towards Oto no Kuni because they knew that's where they hailed from.

There was no one he could truly rely on anymore. The one person who could protect him was dead. Kabuto could not rely on those people like Orochimaru had come to control like pawns. He could not get them to follow him. He lacked that sort of charisma that his master had. There was nothing Kabuto could do but run.

Once again, he was alone in this world.

* * *

_**In Konohagakure, Two Days After the Funeral of the Third Hokage; One Week After the Invasion of Konohagakure…**_

Kakashi made it his personal own mission to give both Sakura and Naruto some time off, and canceled the team meetings. They could have met, even with Sasuke not being there and still recovering in the hospital, but he didn't force them. Hell, he needed the break from the norm too. This week had certainly gotten crazy. Kakashi had lost people that he had known personally in the surprise attack by Oto and Suna. He had learned however to accept these sorts of things a long time ago. However, he felt an urge to go see how the blond boy was doing. Out of all of them, Naruto was the most devastated by the death of the Sandaime Hokage. It wasn't hard to see Naruto looked up to the late Hokage as something of a grandfather.

So, he gave his team and himself a break, but it wasn't for long – at least, not for him.

Even with the Hokage being dead, the Mission Assignment Desk did not sleep. He assumed, by default, the village elders – Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane – were running the village by themselves until the next Hokage was assigned. That meant the mission desk was still active. However, he did not expect being called into the office personally.

In fact, an ANBU he knew came to his house to retrieve him. "Kakashi Hatake, you have been requested to be in the Hokage's office in ten minutes. However, I know your track record of being late, so I came to see you… Hatake-senpai."

"Ah, Yūgao. How are you doing today?" Kakashi asked, almost lethargically, putting away his book. He looked at the purple-haired woman behind the cat-like white ANBU mask she had been assigned to. "Been run ragged?"

"Nothing I can't handle, Senpai."

Kakashi nodded. She sounded exhausted. "You're doing okay?"

"Fine, sir." She curtly said, and Kakashi left at that. He knew she wasn't doing good. It was kind of a stupid question, and Kakashi felt regretful of asking, really. Her lover had died a month before the attack on Konoha, and then the attack probably left her with a few less friends around. He also had no type of business asking. He cared, but he was not the type to pry in other people's business if they weren't willing to let him in. Or rather, if he didn't see it as necessary. If it was one of his students, well, that was different.

"You said the office wanted to see me?"

"Yes. Come with me. You are expected very soon."

"Let me gather my things first," he requested. He disappeared into his bedroom before hearing any sort of reply from her however. It wasn't like his junior was going to protest against it. He wasn't in his "On Duty" attire anyway. Changing out of his blue sweats and a matching t-shirt, he put his navy blue long shirt, his blue pants, and his flak jacket on. He grabbed his fingerless gloves, slipped into his sandals, and put his kunai and shuriken pouches on.

Placing his blue headband on as his accustomed makeshift eyepatch to cover up and seal the Sharingan eye. No need to find his face mask, because he already had it on. _'Alright, it's time to go then.'_

He stepped back into his living room, and walked up to his former junior in the ANBU, who was standing patiently with her hands behind her back. He glanced at her for a moment. Professional, and more importantly, very strong, Yūgao Uzuki really took her job seriously than most members on the force, and they were all a serious group of fellows, really. She never complained about her job. With a clean, good service history with little to no fuck-ups, polite, and strong, she would go places. In fact, it surprised him that she wasn't a leader of her own squad as of yet. That would probably change soon enough. She had the markings of an ANBU captain.

"Ready to go?"

He merely nodded, and she stepped closer to him and put a gloved hand on his shoulder.

In a flash, they were in front of the door of the Hokage office. The two stepped through the doors, and Kakashi saw the two elders inside. Kakashi immediately went on one knee and bowed to the two leaders of the village. They both send him a quick, but respectful nod of their head.

"Thank you, Neko-24. That will be all." Yūgao nodded at the two elders, and merely inclined her head at Kakashi's direction, before disappearing in a plume of smoke.

"Utatane-sama. Mitokado-sama. You wanted to see, my lords?" Kakashi asked, though it was more rhetorical. They wouldn't have sent him here otherwise.

"Not us. The Hokage wanted to see you." Homura corrected, and Kakashi watched as the chair behind the office desk turn around dramatically. Actually, why was the chair big like that? He didn't remember the Sandaime Hokage having such a large-

"Yo! How's it going, kid?!" A boisterous voice said, and Kakashi's eyes widened as Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, came to view.

"Jiraiya-sama… you're the Hokage?"

"Well, soon to be." Jiraiya clarified, grunting a little. "I'm still in the transition of power."

Kakashi blinked for a moment with his good eye, before nodding slowly. It didn't change anything. There was still something he was here for. "How can I serve you, my lord?"

"Straight to business, eh? Very well. I am assigning you to do two things for me. One must be finished today. This is relatively important, so you'll be receiving B-rank pay for this."

That must have meant something that involved leaving Konohagakure. Kakashi nodded. "I accept."

"First, I want you to go and deliver a scroll for me to one Naruto Uzumaki. I'm sure you know of him." Jiraiya grinned. "I would do it myself, but I'm… well, busy."

Kakashi was confused. B-rank pay for something as simple as giving a scroll to a resident of the village who was currently in it? Why get him, and not some chūnin? Besides that, it sounded somewhat strange to Kakashi. What did Jiraiya want with Naruto? Though, he knew of Jiraiya's connection to Naruto. He was Naruto's father's mentor after all, and a close person to the Yondaime Hokage. Still, what exactly did Jiraiya want with him? Time will only tell, really. "It shall be done."

Kakashi was handed the scroll by Koharu, and he stood up. It was rude to ask anything he was curious about. Time will tell what exactly was this all about. "I'll give him the scroll, sir, as soon as I am allowed to leave from here."

"Good, good. The sooner Naruto gets the scroll the better." Jiraiya leaned back in his big chair comfortably. "Second: I'm assigning you a mission in a few days along with a team of jōnin and a team of ANBU."

That sounded even more serious. "What's the mission?"

"Well, as you know, we recently have been attacked by the Suna and Oto. Amidst the battle, we managed to take in some POWs. More specifically, the POWs we are talking about happen to be the children of the former Kazekage." Kakashi nodded solemnly. He could guess what was going to happen next. "You will be going, along with some other shinobi to escort me to Sunagakure to work out a negotiation. As you know as well, we're moving some heavy 'cargo' here. Namely, a hostile jinchūriki."

Gaara, right? Kakashi knew who exactly that was. He nodded silently, and allowed Jiraiya to finish up. "Meet your assigned team in front of the gate in four days from here at 0500hrs sharp. This mission is imperative. Don't be late." The toad sage stared at the silver-haired jōnin sternly.

Kakashi wondered if everyone and their mother knew about his track record of being late to things. He withheld a sigh. "Yes, sir."

"Alrighty then. I have nothing more for you now. You are dismissed and off duty for the rest of the day. As soon as you're finished with your business with the kid on your team." Jiraiya stated, turning a grimace at the stacks of paper on his left side of the desk – something Kakashi had just noticed. "Ah, man, look at all these damn villager concern forms I got to see to…"

Kakashi felt sorry for the man. This was going to be a lot on his mantle. After all, how would he get the time to finish the next Icha Icha novel?! Did that mean that they were canceled? Oh man, life was already hard. What would the point be living without his favorite perverted book?! The title of Hokage sounded like a hassle.

He was glad they never asked _him_ though.

* * *

_**In an Underground Prison Facility in Konoha…**_

He sat in a room, seals tattooed across his skin, not able to mold his chakra in the slightest. Although there were no chains holding him down, he felt like a slave – a dog chained to his leash by its owner. He was without his gourd, without his sand, without the voice constantly in his head. Gaara had gotten perhaps great nights of sleep for the past week. Without Shukaku to gnaw at his mind, he slept for a long time. He was sure he slept for a whole day and a half when he first slept. He did not know what they did to him, but in a way, he was glad. Somewhat. Maybe. He didn't know what to feel honestly. Sleep had indeed had its benefits.

It made everything clear to him, it made him think. It made him afraid.

The urge to kill everything in sight was gone. Rather, a large amount of loneliness fell over him, and he knew the reason why.

Truly, without that thing in his head, the monster who insisted on being called "Mother," constantly there, directing him to kill this and kill that, he felt alone. He hadn't felt alone for the past few years. Even when he believed he had no one but to rely on but himself in this accursed world, he knew that his inner demon protected him from anything. It seemed almost like that nightmarish time before he had known how different he was compared to the world, how much people hated him for something his father and mother implanted in him a long time ago.

Speaking of his father, the man he hated the most in this world, Gaara remembered them telling him that the man was dead. The man parading around as Kazekage in the Chūnin Exams was nothing more but that snake man, Orochimaru, who was also dead. Gaara didn't even blink twice when they told him that his father was dead. To him, it was good. That wretched man would not be missed, especially it was him who sent people after him to kill him all those times. He, who even if he did not set up those assassinations on him, never tried to stop them.

Rasa, the late Yondaime Kazekage, was not a man who was warm and loving to his children. He was a man who valued the village more than his own flesh and blood, who did not impart knowledge onto his children but rather scrolls and jutsu and told them to study. Gaara never even lived in the same house of his father – or at least, he didn't remember doing so. All he could remember is his father's spiteful words to him – "Do not fail me, Gaara." – before he was shipped out to this village, to partake in this exam, to act like a catalyst to a war in which they did not win.

Yes, Gaara had failed here in Konohagakure. He had lost to a mere man. Granted, that man had been one of Konohagakure's legendary Sannin, but Gaara had once thought he was one of the strongest shinobi in the world. That type of arrogance had cost him, and now, he was here, instead of being in Suna. He thought, with Shukaku, he was invincible, but he wasn't. He was weak.

How?

Fighting for one's self, believing in one's self – was there a flaw there? It has been a doctrine he had known for a very long time since his once beloved uncle, Yashamaru, tried killing him. It was something he carried since that faithful day when he lost his mind, when he did not care for anyone anymore, when he had love ripped away from him. Fighting, shedding another's blood, hearing their fear instead of feeling their hatred for him was what made him content. It kept him from being that little boy whose hopes for the world were blow away by a person who strapped many types of explosive tags on him. However, as proven a week ago, and by his capture, he was weak – still as weak as he once was when he was a child. The power of the Ichibi was not the key to Gaara's strength.

How could he get stronger? He could not rely on simply his sand and his inner demon anymore. There had to be a secret to that strength that Jiraiya wielded. Yes, he supposed decades of experience compared to his meager 13 years of life. Even the boy – despite his efforts to kill him being useless – had been able to survive him. How could Gaara come to obtain that strength that he wanted?

Well, he had time to think, didn't he? He wasn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

* * *

Naruto was getting sick of the moping he was doing in his house, and decided to hit up the training grounds. It had been a while since he felt the need to train, but he truly needed to break his little pity party at home. He didn't want to feel miserable anymore, so he needed something to take his mind off his problems. The only thing he could think of that would satisfy him was getting somewhere with his training, or at least going through what he learned, and keeping them solidified.

He had yet to see if he could find Ebisu-sensei, so continuing his training in Earth Release ninjutsu wasn't happening any time soon. All he really could do was keep on practicing what he knew. So, he went through the exercises he learned before.

He bent down to one knee, anchored his chakra to the ground, and pulled slowly, scooping up the dirt. Then, with the same hand, he twisted and moved his chakra to shape the dirt. He paced himself. He didn't try doing it too fast, and instead concentrated on making the first shape he wanted to make: the triangle. It was the first exercise he remembered performing before with Ebisu-sensei.

An equilateral triangle sat in his right hand. Remembering on the lesson on compression and contraction, Naruto decided what to do next in his little refresher exercises on his earth chakra training from the previous month before the Chūnin Exams. He took the triangle, and moved his chakra all across the body of the dirt triangle. _Slowly, and steadily do so. There is no need to rush it_, he told himself. Next, he started to pack it all together, pressing and squeezing his chakra, turning the triangle's dirt into stone. Soon, he had a flat triangular shape that looked akin to something you could throw at someone. Compression: complete.

He then rearranged the chakra, and spread it out again, like it was a bunch of particles he was moving from each other. This was contraction. Contraction was easy when you got compression down, but it was something you had to be wary of, compared to compression. Breaking about and spreading around his chakra in an object could potential burst the object. How did he know of this? Well, he got a full demonstration of it himself when the exercise blew up in his face before – literally. He still remembered Ebisu-sensei laughing his stupid ass off at him, and telling him he needed to go clean his face.

Naruto watched the dirt successfully contract, and what he gotten was the soft triangle of dirt he had in the beginning of this exercise. Then he turned the dirt shapeless again, and molded it to a rectangle. Tried compression, succeeded, tried contraction, and succeeded in that too. Then he turned it back into a rectangle with no hardness, and then the dirt became shapeless again. Then he repeated the dirt triangle again, and did the steps before trying the rectangle once more. It was quite the show – albeit one Naruto was getting tired of doing after the sixth time he did so.

However, he managed to impress someone because not long after attempting the seventh time of the exercise, he heard a whistle. "Wow, and that's what Ebisu's been teaching you, eh? That's pretty advanced for most genin."

Naruto turned and saw his teacher wave at him from a tree, "Yo, Naruto."

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto replied simply with a nod. He temporarily forgot about his exercise, and released the dirt from his hands, as it slumped back into the Earth, where it came from. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, obviously."

"Oh, er, did we have a team meeting today?"

"No. We won't be meeting up, at least until Sasuke finished recovering up in the hospital. So, perhaps next week if he is cleared up. We won't be taking missions either until he comes back." Kakashi waved his concerns away. "No, no. I was sent by the Hokage to look for you."

Naruto frowned a bit at that. He had yet to meet the new Hokage – actually, he never even knew they already elected a new one already. "What for?"

"To deliver this scroll to you." Kakashi presented such a thing, which added to Naruto's confusion. Naruto's teacher jumped from his spot in a tree, and then stepped near towards Naruto. "Here you go."

Naruto blinked, and scratched his head. He grabbed the scroll, and placed it in his jacket's pocket. "Uh, thanks."

An awkward silence began between the two. Naruto had nothing much to say to his jōnin teacher at all. Was there anything _to _say? He didn't think so. He felt fine, he wanted to continue practicing his ninjutsu, and that's it.

But Kakashi didn't let it go. "So, do you need some help with your training?"

"No thanks, Sensei. Besides, I'm at a part where I need Ebisu-sensei to go over the next part of my training anyway."

"It doesn't look like what you are doing is hard. I can help you with your training if you give me the specifics of what you need help with." The silver-haired jōnin insisted.

"Don't you got other things to do today?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow up.

"Nope, I don't 'got other things to do today,'" Kakashi teased, a smile hidden under his mask. "I'm pretty much off duty, and I have a lot time to help you."

That brought a bitter thought in Naruto's head. _'Oh, you got time to help me now?' _Naruto sucked in some air to calm himself down. "Don't worry about it. I was just going over what I learned from Ebisu-sensei last month."

"Want to learn something new with your Earth Release ninjutsu?"

"Not today, Sensei…"

Kakashi finally sighed, and crossed his arms, looking like he had enough of this beating around of the bush. "I get it, Naruto. You're still mad at me."

"…No."

"I can see it in your eyes." The older male shook his head. "You know why I had to do it, Naruto. I was assigned to train Sasuke for the month."

"Yeah, and you decided also it was worth more to train him for the month, instead of sparing some time on me. I was in the tournament too, you know?" Naruto held a hand to his chest, anger now starting to course through him. "Instead, you said 'No.' You doubted me, you thought I wouldn't make it, like the rest of these dickheads out here. You said my skills were subpar, and I needed a lot to get better, and that hurt, man. I expected all these other people to say it, but for my own _teacher _to say that… Fuck yeah, I'm mad at you. You proved yourself to be just like the rest of the people in the village. Look at what I did to show you that I'm not the same dead last you knew six months ago, Sensei. I got far in the finals of the exams. I beat Neji, and that sand village girl too. I even fought the guy that Sasuke was supposed to fight. I did everything you thought I wasn't going to do! What do you gotta say to that?"

"You're right, Naruto."

"…huh?"

Instead of trying to defend himself, Kakashi went for a surprise move. "You're right. I should have done something to help you besides sending you off with Ebisu. You were in the tournament, and I should have done something. I regret telling you those things last month. It wasn't something a teacher should tell his student, to let his own student know that he didn't think he was going to go far in the exams. It was completely dick-headed of me to go about that in such a way. In fact, you deserve the right to be mad at me. You have every right to do so, but look at what you've done.

"You went far in the exams. Farther than me or anyone would have expected, and I have seen your matches on a replay they allowed us jōnin to watch. You were spectacular. You defeated Neji with such mastery of the **Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu**. You made Temari's main form of attack useless. You did well against Gaara as well, despite his status as a jinchūriki. I think out of all of its contestants in that contest, you have the greatest chance of being promoted, Naruto. In my eyes, you have done very well, and shaped up so much since the last month we spoke. You're not the brash, headstrong kid I knew for six months. You're growing to something more. I can't ask you to forgive me, but all I can do now is to help you move forward.

"In a way, I'm glad I sent you off with Ebisu. He helped you shape up nicely. Beyond the scope of doing just the basics with you, you have accomplished learning how to use your elemental affinity in battle, learned a handful of ninjutsu, and have become stronger in your own way. All because you didn't stop believing in yourself. I'm proud of you." Kakashi finished, smiling under his mask.

Naruto felt many things from Kakashi's words. He felt happiness for the acknowledgement of his teacher. He craved for more. He felt embarrassment for such. He was annoyed that words like that could somewhat making his anger go away. Finally, that lingering anger remained for Kakashi's past actions. It wouldn't go away. He kept being reminded of such. Maybe he shouldn't be pissed about it though. After all, in the end, he got what he wanted. He wanted to be stronger; he wanted to do great in the exams, and he did do so. Though, that was the point. He gotten stronger because of a person he wouldn't have dreamed learning from, or caring to do so. He didn't get help from his teacher, and his teacher thought he wasn't even worth the effort.

Yeah, that's what exactly he was pissed about. He wasn't worth the effort. Naruto growled, clenching his fist tightly, and he refused to meet his teacher's eye. "No teacher should doubt their student."

"You're absolutely right. I should have not."

"…I'm still pissed at you, dammit."

"As you should be, Naruto." Kakashi said gently.

Naruto growled again. "Just… Stop it, already. Stop trying to get me to stop being mad at you, and forgive you quickly, because I won't. In the end, I just want Ebisu-sensei to help me out with this stuff. Everything else, I'll leave to you to teach me. Hopefully you'll keep your word, but it ain't just about me. What about Sakura-chan too? She needs help with her training – she could have gotten seriously hurt in the invasion just like Sasuke did. You want me to be not pissed at you? Okay. There's a way to do that, but it goes beyond me. _We_ – my team and me – need you to stop being lazy, get off your ass, and train us the right way. No running off to train Sasuke alone. No more just giving us training in the Tree Climbing Exercise. No more telling us we need to work on our teamwork, especially when we work just fine together. We need to get trained. _That's _my word of advice to you."

Kakashi looked at him with his one good eye, and nodded at him slowly. "A good piece of advice indeed…" Kakashi then turned away from his student. "I'll leave you alone for now."

Naruto merely grunted, and listened to his teacher walk away. A minute later, he finally turned to check if the jōnin was gone. Satisfied that the man was indeed gone – or seemed to be – Naruto released a breath of air. That was completely awkward as hell, but he was glad he got some things off his chest. Maybe he shouldn't have been so angry, but still… "Argh, why does this shit gotta be so complicated, man?"

He shook his head. "I can't concentrate enough to practice my Earth Release. Maybe I should call it a day."

He then remembered what his teacher gave him and pulled out the scroll out of his jacket's pocket. He stared at the thing for a few seconds. "Why the hell did the Hokage want to give me this?"

Well, there was only one way to find out, and since he said he didn't want to train anymore, it was time to head back into town. Maybe get something to eat, and go back home for some rest and relaxation. It was already 5 in the afternoon already, and nothing much was happening today. It was kind of unlike him to call it a day so early, especially when he was getting back into his training, but today had a lot of emotional crap shitted on him.

Yeah, he should call it a day.

* * *

_**The Next Day…**_

Naruto figured he should have read the scroll yesterday, but after he ate dinner, and returned home, he went quickly to sleep. He was really tired for some reason, so he turned in early, and woke up just as early. The village wasn't burning down, so he figured it was okay that he didn't exactly jump up and look at the scroll in question.

After he finished washing up, eating, and cleaning up his house until it finally hit 11:30 in the morning, he finally stopped procrastinating, sat down in his living room, and opened up the scroll addressed to him. If the Hokage wanted to give this to him, this had to have some great deal of importance.

Then he felt like a complete dumb shit when he realized the Godaime Hokage sent this to him was merely passing off a scroll originally written by the _Sandaime _Hokage.

"_Dear Naruto,_

"_I hope this letter finds you well. If you are receiving this letter… Well, I guess you know what it means. As cliché as it sounds, it is very true. For that, I am sorry. I'm sorry because I will not watch you grow to be the shinobi I know you will be. I am sorry for being able to assign that first mission to you as a chūnin, and watch you complain verily because I was giving you a C-rank mission. I could imagine you growling angrily at me, and me attempting (and failing) to not laughing. I would say, 'Naruto, my boy, this mission is to simply get your feet wet,' and you would respond that you already are ready. Then, you would complete it, flawlessly, and come back for some more. Then, I would be there to see that you got your first B-rank mission._

Naruto shook his head, smiling despite feeling very sad at the moment. Yeah, that sounded exactly how they would be. God, he missed the old man already.

"_I'm sorry because I will not be able to see you become the man I know you will be. Hokage… what a hell of a goal to accomplish, son, but… somewhere in my heart, I always knew you would be. It's in your blood to be, I always believed it. Yes, I can already imagine your head swelling over that. Perhaps I will let you get away with that._

"_Truth be told, Naruto, there is so much I seen out of you. It is just merely unfortunate how things had to go – or will be. No matter. You will be strong, with or without me being there. You will follow your dreams and gain what you want whether or not I can see it. Still, it pains me to not be there, as I do believe it will for you._

"I'll make you proud, old man," Naruto whispered to himself, scrubbing his eyes.

"_So, I will make it up to you._

That line had Naruto scratch his head in confusion. "Make… what up to me, old man? Dying? It ain't your fault."

"_You have noticed a few markings on this paper, have you not, Naruto? One of the seals were created so you, and only you, could read it. You will not believe it, but I needed to make it so. There are people out there that will do you harm should they learn of what we speak of – or rather, what you will learn from this scroll soon enough._

"_The seal on the top of the scroll was keyed to your DNA; the second seal on the bottom left corner of the scroll is also keyed to your DNA. Please, activate it."_

...

Naruto wondered how the hell would he do that. "Um, this didn't exactly come with instructions… Or did it?" Naruto read further and saw in parentheses: (Note: Place your hand onto the seal, and feed it chakra, Naruto.)

"Oh. Dammit, old man. Making me feel stupid. Thanks for looking out for me though." Naruto smirked however, and placed his hand on the seal. Placing some of his chakra, the seal glowed brightly for a second, and then disappeared before new text appeared on the scroll.

"_Ah, you have activated the second seal. Excellent. We have much to discuss, my boy._

"_First, there is someone you must seek out in this village. He is a man I wanted you to meet for a while now. Do not worry about how long it will take for you to seek him out; he will be at a place you will never miss. His name is Jiraiya. I do not know if you have study about him in your classes (or rather if you _remember_ such studies), but if you have, you should know who he is. He will be your mentor for the time being, besides Kakashi._

"_Second, you must know of an organization who is dangerous to people of your 'status.' I trust you know what I mean._

Ugh, the old man was talking about being the container of that _thing_ inside of him, wasn't he? There were people after the blond because of it? _'My life always got some problem to it, doesn't it?'_

"_Their name is the Akatsuki, and although information of them is scarce, one thing about them is certain: they are dangerous. A group of several S-rank missing-nins, they are a terrorist group bent on capturing tailed beasts, by force. Yes, you can see now why they are dangerous, do you not? Terrorists capturing tailed beasts around the world for whatever purpose they have in mind is indeed a scary thought, and you are as much in danger as I am making it sound like._

"_And I have the belief that they can accomplish this goal._

"_Thus, I ask of you one thing that you must promise me, Naruto. You must promise me never to seek out these men on your own, without any back up. I do not care if you are – or _believe_ you are – the strongest shinobi of the village. These boogeymen of the shinobi world rely heavily on teamwork. They work in two-man cells, and their skills compliment their partners. Always have someone to back you up if you must fight these people._

Sheesh. If these people had the Hokage scared of them, then shit, he would definitely not even bother trying to _think_ about these people. Fuck that noise.

"_Unfortunately, I believe you must eventually fight these people soon enough. My nugget of advice to you, my boy? Get stronger, get stronger quickly. You have little time now for acting like a child, as horrible as it sounds. Not to mention, I believe you will not even get the chance to. That vest that they put on people is, technically, supposed to make you an adult at this point. All jesting aside, I am serious._

"Old man, I was already planning on getting stronger, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted back at the scroll. "Stop nagging me from the grave, gosh!"

"_I imagine however, you would be saying something like, 'Old man, I was already planning to get stronger, gosh!' _(Naruto sputtered in shock. Was the man a psychic?!) _and I would be laughing my head off because of it. I know you will. As I said before, it's in your blood to do so. With the help of your teachers, I'm sure you will. It's a pity that I will not be around to see it._

"_But perhaps, I can help you with it. If you haven't figured it out, I have another three miniature seals under this passage. Press them, and you'll receive something else that I leave with you. _

"_Another seal will appear to the bottom right corner of the scroll that has nothing to do with the gift I give you. Instead, it is more information about another topic. However, I have made something of a challenge for you. This will be, in a way, a test to see whether or not you are truly strong enough to handle the world. In order to unlock some of the seals I have on this scroll, you must learn how to use fūinjutsu. You must learn how to unravel these seals yourself. These seals are all keyed to your DNA; getting someone else to undo the seal will not work, so no shortcuts to this. It may seem like a pain, but I believe it will be worthwhile to you._

"_For now, I ask you to look at the gifts I give you. Activate the seal that look similar to the one before, Naruto."_

…Ah, more seals eh? Hell, this thing had a lot of similar looking seals that he could read on. Some were very different, so he was guessing those were the ones who held information he couldn't get just yet. This was like some sort of complex game that the old man made. Though, for a guy who was nicknamed "The Professor" stuff like this was like second nature to him.

He had to put fūinjutsu as one of the many things he had to learn on his list now. For now, he should activate one of the seals he made on the scroll available to him at usage.

"_Yes. This is one of the five ninjutsu I have stored information about on this scroll. That is five ninjutsu I hope that will come to serve you well like they have done for me. Train well. _

"_Ninjutsu 1: __**D**__-"_

A knock began at his door, taking him out of the reading of the scroll. Scrubbing his eyes, and wrapping up the scroll, he got up from his position on the table, and walked to the front door.

He wondered who the hell was it bothering him on his day off. Last time he checked, Kakashi-sensei said until Sasuke recovered from the hospital and was ready to leave, Team Kakashi wouldn't be taking any sort of missions – something that, after yesterday, he decided he was going to enjoy. He doubted Kakashi-sensei would be actively trying to seek him out after yesterday either.

As soon as he opened the door, he was surprised to see a familiar face waiting outside for him – more specifically, his former teacher. "Oh, Iruka-sensei! What's up?"

His teacher smiled at him. "Hello, Naruto. Actually, I'm here for you."

"What do you need me for? Ramen?"

"No. You're due in the Hokage's office in a few minutes."

Naruto scratched his head. Yeah, the new Hokage… Right. They appointed one already. Then again, it made sense. _'I mean, with Sarutobi-jiji dead… well, they needed a new Hokage quickly. I wonder what he's like or if I know them…'_

Naruto returned from his thoughts to reality, and nodded at Iruka. "Alright. Lemme throw on my jacket, and we can go."

Iruka nodded back at him. "I'll wait outside."

"I won't be long, Sensei." With that, Naruto turned back inside, and closed the door.

* * *

**At the Ninja Academy, the Hokage's Suite…**

"The first thing that will happen now, Jiraiya, is the immediate contacting of the daimyo, and announce that the next Hokage has been chosen. Preparations for the inauguration will commence today."

"Yes, yes." Jiraiya waved lazily, sitting down on a large pillow in the room, listening to the old coots Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado already bark instructions out to him. He sipped on a cup of water briefly before commenting again. "Not a fan of big ceremonies and whatnot, but if it can't be helped..."

"Take this more seriously, Jiraiya," Homura scolded. "This has been a tradition since the days of the Shodai."

"Aoba, Genma," Koharu called out flatly, and behind her, two shinobi appeared, crouched, and awaiting orders.

"Here, Koharu-sama!" Both men declared.

"Issue a notice to those in the village about the matter of Jiraiya-sama's inauguration. In two days, the inauguration will happen."

"Yes, madam!" And the two disappeared again with the work of the **Shunshin no Jutsu**.

Jiraiya merely drank from his cup of water, and when it was empty, refilled it. He listened almost absently to the elders' ranting, telling him all the information he needed to know about his appointment to being the Hokage. Already, he was starting to feel a headache. He was hoping the soothing cool water would do something to calm him down, but that wasn't the case at all.

This was a lot of crap to just get the job, really. He almost wished he actually stuck to his plan to go get Tsunade, but he also knew this was all for the best. The past few days have really stuck to him. He truly needed to do this. Who else was qualified to do this? There was only him, and the "other choice," and we couldn't have that, could we?

When the elders were finished, he immediately left the room to stretch his legs, and walked to the outside balcony. He watched the village silently, breathing in and out as he took in the air. Oh, this was going to become very, very annoying soon. As he thought it would be like, politics and him did not click at all. Just hearing the elders bark orders at him, was annoying. He can imagine how that would be like for the next years to come. Fun, fun.

He would have to take in whatever amount of respite he could get with this new job of his. Man, being the Hokage would, no doubt, suck complete ass.

A lot was left at his feet, it seemed. _'Sarutobi-sensei really has given me a lot of BS to deal with. I got the Sunagakure-thing to deal with, and their jinchūriki and his siblings are currently our prisoners of war. Then, we got to broker some sort of treaty with them; there's no way I'm going to war with that country. We don't need war, especially with _that_ organization running around trying to capture_ you-know-what. _Then, I got these old people to deal with too who seems to love bossing me around, and I haven't had the job for even two weeks._'

The white-haired man scratched the back of his head, huffing hot air out of his mouth. _'I got like 99 problems right now. Damn, why the hell did I want this job when I was a kid? Oh, right, I was a _kid_. Sheesh. Minato wanted this? How the hell did he do it? Of course, he was always the responsible one. He loved this job to the fullest, that kid.' _He smiled, melancholy flowing inside him. Spirits knew how he missed his late student. It looked like he had to pick off where his student and teacher left off at, and be the damn best leader this village could get right now.

'_At least until my godson gets to sit in the grand seat. Ah, speaking of him, he should be swinging around here soon.' _And as soon as he thought that, the male elder, Homura, had stepped onto the balcony, clearing his throat to get the sage's attention.

Jiraiya knew it was time.

* * *

Naruto walked with his teacher, speaking about a myriad of things that really didn't matter all too much to him. He was too busy being anxious about what the hell the new Hokage wanted with him to have any sort of small talk. Maybe it really was someone he knew. However, as soon as he stepped into the room where the Hokage resided at in the day time when he was not at the Mission Assignment Desk, he saw only two people there, and they weren't at the desk.

Instead, two old people stood where the Hokage's desk was at, looking at him with a stern look on their faces, and their arms crossed behind their backs. One nodded at him, and politely said, "Good afternoon, Umino-sensei, Uzumaki-kun."

"Good afternoon Mitokado-sama and Utatane-sama," Iruka bowed and said back.

Naruto followed suit with a bow respectful enough to not be considered rude. "Good afternoon."

Naruto twitched as he heard movement behind him. The door opened behind him, and who stepped through was not the Hokage but Shikamaru Nara, and someone who looked like him a lot, only with more scars and a goatee. The man was wearing the standard flak vest most chūnin and jōnin wore.

Naruto assumed it was Shikamaru's father, as he saw the nearly identical son follow in after him. He relaxed quickly. "Yo, Shikamaru."

His lazy peer nodded at him. "Naruto, Iruka-sensei, good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, Shikamaru-kun, and good afternoon Shikaku-san." Iruka acknowledged the older male, who nodded at him.

"Afternoon everyone, and an afternoon to you too, elders," Shikamaru's father, Shikaku, uttered, sending the two old people a bow before stepping further into the room with his son. "Shall we be meeting the Hokage today?"

"Yes, he will be back momentarily. He went outside to stretch his legs." The old woman spoke up, sending a gaze to Shikamaru, and then to the blond boy. Naruto felt himself straighten up, and stiffen. There was something about her look that seemed to be judging him. Though, she seemed to be satisfied when he was no long slumped.

The door opened after two long minutes, and Naruto watched someone new walk through the office. Much to his surprise, he believed he did meet this man. Wasn't this- Yes! He did see this man before! The old coot from that one time a few weeks ago, at Ichiraku! What was his name again? Ah, he didn't remember, sadly. He was more focused on his training from before. Still, though, who the hell was this guy? _'And why is he staring at me specifically?' _

The white-haired man came to sit down the desk of the Hokage, and Naruto knew this guy was the Godaime Hokage. "Ah, a good walk, a good walk. Yes, afternoon everyone."

"Good afternoon," was the collective response of everyone in the room.

"Yes, I know some of you here are wondering why you are here, especially in the middle of the day, and some of you haven't had your lunches yet." Oh yeah, that was true. That was something Naruto was gripping about to Iruka-sensei earlier during their walk to the Academy. "I won't take much of your time, but before we get into the reason why you're here, let me introduce myself."

The man then stood- no, jumped- no, _flew _out his seat, and did the strangest thing Naruto would have ever seen a Hokage did. He did some sort of… _pose_ where he was hopping on one foot, hand saluting them, and music – the fuck?! – started playing from seemingly nowhere. "I AM THE GALLANT, SUPREME SHINOBI WHO HAS NO EQUAL! MY STRENGTH IS ONE THAT CAN MOVE _MOUNTAINS! _WHEN I STEP INTO A BATTLEFIELD, THE ENEMIES LITERALLY SHIT THEMSELVES UNCONSCIOUS! YOU BEST WATCH YOUR BOOZE, YOUR WOMEN, AND YOUR DAUGHTERS, BECAUSE I'LL SNATCH THEM RIGHT UP! I AM THE GALLANT PANTYDROPPER, GAMA SENNIN NO JIRAIYA!"

After the music ended, silence followed. No one in the office said a word. All of the people there stared forward. For the elderly folk behind Jiraiya, they _glared_ forward. Actually, they glared specifically at Jiraiya. Jiraiya must have noticed, because then he coughed, and sat back down in his chair. "Ah, yeah, that's my intro…."

Finally, Naruto could not take it anymore, and literally fell down, holding his belly in pain as he howled in laughter. Tears, _literal tears_, started rolling down his cheeks. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, my _fucking god! _I, I, I can't! Ah-ah-AHAHAHAHA! I-IRUKA-SENSEI, HELP, HELP ME PLEASE! I'VE FALLEN AND CAN'T GET BACK UP!"

Naruto's eyes were closed but he can hear voices. "Naruto, get back up, dammit! You're being embarrassing!"

"Well, at least _someone _liked my intro…"

"We told you not to do this, Jiraiya-sama, and you did it anyway..."

"I feel a migraine coming on."

"Troublesome. Why the hell did we have to come here, Dad?"

"Hush now, Shika. You know you were ready to laugh your ass off too."

"S-Snrk…. Not true at all."

Naruto felt himself being pulled up. He gave no sort of resistance, finally opening his eyes to see everyone staring at him. His laughter died down. He cleared his throat, his smile wiped off his face. "So, what are we here for, old coot?"

Jiraiya growled immediately. "Who ya callin' an old coot, brat?"

"You. I remember you from that other day at Ichiraku's. What I told ya before? You ain't getting my respect until you earn- gah! Dammit, that _hurts_!"

"Naruto, shut up now." Iruka gritted through his teeth, smashing a hand into Naruto's blond locks.

The Hokage guffawed. "Well then, I guess even as Hokage, I'm not entitled to your respect, eh? Well, like I said: I like your spunk. However, you _might _wanna change your tune when I present you your chūnin vest."

Naruto stilled, and looked up. "…Wait, what?"

"Yes. You asked why you're here, right? Well, I'm telling you. You're getting a promotion; both of you, really."

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru sighed. "Damn, I knew it."

"We're getting promoted?! Whoo! Yesyesyesyes, _yes_! Fuck yeah!"

"Naruto!" Iruka winced at the childishness his former student was showing. Naruto's crassness was unbecoming, no doubt offending both the Hokage and the two village elders. "Calm down already."

Surprisingly, Jiraiya chuckled again. "No, no. Let the little guy let it out. I know how it feels to get that promotion and being gob-smacked about it. It'll fade soon."

"Um, Hokage-sama," Shikamaru raised his hand, not looking pleased. "Why did I get nominated for a chūnin? This seems all troublesome to me."

The white-haired man scratched his chin, smiling. "Well, Nara-san, I reviewed your match in the Chūnin Exams. I was pleased. You have shown a great deal of intelligence, talent, and will to be a shinobi. Besides using the battlefield to your advantage, the obvious knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses, and knowing when to quit while you can has secured you a nomination. You're a quick thinker, a strategist, and stayed cool, even when things didn't look good. That's the type of level-headed attitude we need for chūnin.

"Think of your match as one big mission. You had to fight a kunoichi, who was found to be a seasoned genin with an affinity for high-level wind ninjutsu. Instead of fighting head on, you kept your distance. You planned ahead and used the battlefield as your advantage. Then, when it was clear you could not defeat her, you forfeited. That's the attitude that separates the genin from the chūnin. I cannot tell you how many genin I have seen throw their lives away because they wanted to play hero, didn't know when to quit, and as a result, could never become a chūnin. That's the type of recklessness we don't want for Konohagakure.

"It's not about being strong in this world, but being smart. If the mission doesn't call for it, you fight only when you know you can fight. You flee to fight another day. That's what important to this rank I'm giving you, and a lot of young upstarts like you don't get that. Fortunately – or unfortunately for _you_ – you seemed to have got the main point of the Exams."

"Urgh. Can I just not accept? I think I got promoted to chūnin way too fast for my liking. I was hoping for another year or two."

Shikamaru's father answered before the Hokage. He looked positively cheeky. "Well, you can refuse, but you can expect a hell of a tongue-lashing from your mother when you get home if you don't accept."

"…She knows I was nominated, doesn't she?"

"Mmhm."

"Dammit, Dad."

"Manners, my son. Now, what do say to the nice Hokage?"

"…I want to say 'Sigh,' but I can't." Shikamaru then bowed deeply. "Thank you very much, Hokage-sama."

Jiraiya grinned at the two Nara men. "You're welcome." Then he turned to the blond boy next to Iruka Umino. "Now you, brat."

"Ah… Well, why was I nominated then?"

"To be honest: you were more of a controversial pick, kid." Jiraiya leaned back in his seat leisurely, but his face serious. "On one hand, the way you acted in front of all of us not too long ago shows you still need to mature a bit. That's not how you act in front of a leader of a village. Granted, I'll accept it since you're young, and the display by the Nara boy wasn't all that better either. On the other hand, there's another reason here. My advisers believed you are impulsive, and reckless in the Exams. In your match against Gaara, that certainly looked like it. Everything you seemed to be doing was not working. Not even when you threw those exploding tags at him. There was a time in the match where you clearly would have been killed if it wasn't for some very quick thinking and your opponent being momentarily distracted by the proctor." Naruto looked down, shamed by the Hokage's words. "But, I think that doesn't matter."

The blond perked up and looked at Jiraiya attentively. "I say you can be as much of a thinker and strategist as the Nara boy here. The matches that sold me? Your match with Neji Hyūga and especially with Temari of Sunagakure. In those two matches, you had a clear plan on what to do. You used the battlefield to your advantage, and with your affinity for Earth Release, it helped you go far in the tournament. Your combined usage of the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** and the **Doton: Mogurakure no Jutsu **overpowered your otherwise more experienced shinobi. Neji could do nothing as you used basically two ninjutsu to defeat him. With Temari, you simply used your earth affinity to make her fan useless, and defeated her. That cannot be ignored."

"So what you're a little impulsive, and so loud you make me want to tear my ears off my head?" Naruto nearly snarled in indignation, but caught himself. "You'll grow out of it. You're young – you can act a little stupid sometimes. However, I don't think you're as impulsive and reckless when it comes to the battlefield. When you had that game plan, you made it work to the best of your abilities. I like that, and Konohagakure is going to like that. That's why I decided to bump you up to the next rank."

"T-Thank you." Streams of tears came down Naruto's face. He tried to stop it but he couldn't. He couldn't help it. This past few days has been a turbulent ride for him. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

Jiraiya smiled. "See? His tune turned. Right then, come and get the vests, young men. You have earned it. I best see nothing but good things from you from now on, right?"

"Yes, sir!" Both of the former genin said in front of their leader. Shikamaru threw on his newer vest over his usual attire, while Naruto unzipped his jacket, and threw it over his black t-shirt. He was noticeably more ecstatic than his surly peer.

Jiraiya smiled again at the both of them, though Naruto could have sworn the Hokage's smile was more directed towards him.

How odd.

But Naruto was too busy being overwhelmed with joy and happiness for what had happened just now. Finally, the day had come where he was one step closer to achieving his dream.

* * *

"Jiraiya, was it wise to do that?" Homura finally said, after the office cleared out. Naruto and Shikamaru – along with his father – had left the office around two or three minutes before the elder man uttered anything.

"Hmm?" The Hokage-elect grunted out.

"You know what we are asking, Jiraiya. Clearly, the boy isn't ready to move up in the ranks." Koharu spoke up.

Jiraiya merely drank from a cup of water. For a moment, he said nothing. Then he uttered, "I noticed I didn't hear a "yet" from you, Utatane-sama. Maybe then that wouldn't sound so bad when you said it. You know, I think you two are being very narrow-minded. Saying the boy isn't mature enough to become a chūnin is indeed fair, but that's not the real reason why you want him to stay a genin, is it?"

The two were silent, while Jiraiya sighed. "You two know about the Akatsuki from the information I have presented to the Hokage a few months ago; they will come for the boy."

"And sending him outside the village is completely foolish. That makes him easier to become captured." The female elder criticized.

"And keeping him confined to the village where they know where he's always going to be is worse." Jiraiya countered immediately, a frown now on his face. "Not to mention the Akatsuki have a certain former _ANBU Captain _of ours who knows the entire layout of the village."

"_He_ hasn't been in the village for years." Koharu countered quickly.

Jiraiya laughed sarcastically. "Haha, we know that even though that's true, Itachi Uchiha was a child prodigy with an intellect that rivaled a Nara." He poured water into his cup again. "Now, we need to get prepared for this group of unknowns. You two of all people know the dangers of having little to no information on an enemy, no matter how seemingly small, and seemingly insignificant. We will be treating our enemy very seriously, especially when they seek the tailed beasts for their own. This means they have the means of taking them. Naruto cannot afford to stay just here and grow as some sort of secret weapon with no sort of experience of the real world. His potential is too large to be contained like that."

"We know this is a serious threat, Jiraiya. Do not insult us." Homura said, showing some of his ire. "However, do you not think you are going about this in the wrong way?"

"We believe you are allowing your affection for the boy clouding your judgment." Koharu said bluntly and not apologetic. "Your desire to protect him because he is Minato-sama's son is making you blind to reason. He needs to be kept here, and then we can bring out the potential you keep saying he has. There is no doubt he has it, but for the sake of the village and the sake of him, it's better to keep him here, and not have him go on any sort of mission that involves going outside the vil-"

Her words were interrupted by the shattering of glass. More specifically, the glass of water Jiraiya was going to drink from. From a quick glance at his eyes, the elders both knew the man was pissed, and it surprised them. Jiraiya was the most laid-back of the three legendary sannin.

As fast as that anger flashed in his eyes however, was as fast as it went away. Jiraiya sighed and wiped the mess off the table with a towel he secured from somewhere on his person. The other two people in the office did not question it. "Listen, I get it. To you two, Naruto Uzumaki is nothing more than a political tool."

"That is completely-!" Homura started, looking furious.

Jiraiya held his hand up, and that quelled any sort of retort from the now angered older shinobi. "You believe he's a jinchūriki first, and a young man later, but you couldn't be any wrong. This is a young man who will have a career beyond just coming out to fight for wars and defend our country against other jinchūriki."

Jiraiya rose from his seat, and walked towards the middle of the office, staring at the both of the elders. "Kushina Uzumaki was the former jinchūriki of the Kyūbi. Yet, she was a renowned jōnin, and she came to Konohagakure as young as 10 years old. She was treated as a full-fledged ninja who took missions outside Konohagakure, and was a kunoichi first, and a jinchūriki later. In fact, she became strong because she wasn't treated like a jinchūriki at all. She never used her demon's power at all or relied on it, and the Hokage never had her have to go through all the ordeals you are telling me to put Naruto through."

He paused briefly and looked at the two older shinobi. Satisfied the elders no longer had any sort of retort to his words, Jiraiya continued. "He did it, even when that time was a time of war and strife between all the nations in the world. It was a time where it would have been easy to force the girl to harness that power, and become nothing more than our tool to use when we needed it. I will do exactly what Sarutobi-sensei did. I will treat Naruto Uzumaki as he should be treated as."

"Then he will be weak _and _in danger." Koharu hissed, frustration starting to leak through her tone of voice.

Jiraiya shook his head. They needed to change that attitude quick. They may have been older shinobi, but they forgot who he was and what he had been through. Hell, they hadn't been active shinobi for a while now. "You misunderstand. See, unlike during Sarutobi-sensei's reign, we do not have the luxury of having Naruto not use the Kyūbi to his advantage."

"What are you saying then, Jiraiya-sama?" Homura asked, a bit more respectful that Koharu, but not by much.

"I'm saying that he will be training to use his inner demon, elders. We all know the Kyūbi – as terrifying as a force it is – is something that will give Naruto strength. Just, we will not be seeing that as his _only _strength. He will be treated as a shinobi first. Nothing more, nothing less. I will be the one to see to this myself. I'm the only one who can, after all. I had one job before I accepted this gig, after all." Jiraiya stated evenly, drinking from his cup as the two elders quieted down.

He didn't know why they were so worried about Naruto. He already promised his old teacher that Naruto would become the best damn shinobi he could mold, and he was already a goddamn good teacher. Just look at Minato – albeit, the man was dead, but that wasn't because of Jiraiya not trying.

No, Naruto would become just like his father: a legend. It would just take a little bit of his, and Sarutobi-sensei's help to bring that potential out in him.

* * *

Naruto spent the next half-hour breaking the news to his friends at Ichiraku's. Ayame and Teuchi were just as happy as he was. Teuchi offered him a "on-the-house" meal and you already knew he took the deal, with gusto.

"Congratulations, _Chūnin_ Uzumaki." Iruka started with a smile, before slurping on his ramen at a much more sedated pace than his former student. "Wow, chūnin-rank and it hasn't been so much of a year out of the Academy. How does it feel?"

"It feels good, Sensei. It feels good. I'm one step closer to my dream. This is fucking awesome." Naruto retorted, touching his vest diligently as if he was touching something fragile.

"Just make sure you know what you're stepping into, Naruto. The time for playing around is over. From this day forward, you will no longer be treated as a child to the eyes of Konohagakure." Iruka scolded, looking sternly at Naruto. Genin were – legally speaking – adults, but they were still treated like kids, of course. Chūnin meant you were an adult, through and through.

"I understand, Sensei." Naruto said back flippantly, taking a swig from his dish.

"Do you, Naruto? I hope so. After all, like the Hokage said in the office, your election was 'controversial' – meaning they didn't know whether or not you deserved to be elected."

"Hey, I worked my ass off in the Chūnin Exams, man!" Naruto nearly growled back, his anger showing. "What do their old asses know?"

"A lot, you idiot. They have been around decades more than you and me. They were Sandaime-sama's teammates, and have nearly as much as respect as the Hokage. How many people do you think they elected before you and me were even _born_?" The teacher of the Academy shook his head. "I thought we discussed how you need to see this rank as a responsibility. You are no longer a kid on a team, being lead around by your jōnin. You're a young man who will, one day, be called on missions that have nothing to do with Kakashi-san, or Sakura-chan, or Sasuke-kun."

Naruto sobered up after that. He then looked down, and put his chopsticks in his bowl. "…yeah, that's right. I'm no longer… a part of Team Seven, am I?"

"No, you're not. Well, I mean officially. You can go on missions with them all you want, sure, but what happens when you are called on missions by the Hokage's orders, or you are requested for missions that you must take? This isn't a game, Naruto." Iruka sighed, tugging a little at his ponytail. "Look, I know I'm being hard on you, but I'm telling you because you need to know. This is something no one's going to tell you later on in your career as a shinobi. It's time to grow, Naruto. You can't be a kid anymore, Naruto – at least while you wear that vest. You're a man now; it's time to start acting like one."

He was indeed being hard on Naruto, but Iruka truly couldn't fault Naruto on how he was acting. Not a bit. He didn't have a father to teach him how to be a man. He didn't have a grandfather to listen to. He didn't have an uncle to show him the way. He had no older brother to emulate, or a cousin to connect to. He had no one. Naruto was forced to grow up with no one to look after him. Iruka knew the feeling all too well.

He remembered coming home where it was empty and lifeless. It was a constant reminder of the absent parents that were supposed to be there to see their son graduate, and become a chūnin where he helped model the youth into fine shinobi like they had once done. Naruto had it worse. He was an orphan since birth, really. He didn't even know his parents; at least Iruka had knew he had parents who loved him.

Naruto didn't have such a luxury. As a jinchūriki, Iruka knew Naruto would never have the luxury to take it easy. Life was hard enough, but being a vessel of a demon who earned the scorn of the entire village made things worse for him, and he had a lot to prove to them. He could see why Naruto's goal was to become a Hokage, but in order to get to that level, he had to shape up, and fast.

Iruka sighed, but smiled forcefully. He patted the young man he viewed as a little brother – and sometimes, confusingly enough, as a _son _– on his shoulder. He saw Naruto's sullen face, and couldn't help but to feel bad about. No, he couldn't feel bad. This was what Naruto needed to hear. "Relax though. You have every right to be excited about this. I'm proud that you got to this level. I just want to see you go far, Naruto. If you're going to become my Hokage, you best get super strong."

Naruto looked up, and smiled. Then, he grinned. "You're right! I'm a chūnin now! It's time to stop playing around. The position of the Hokage is something I'm looking forward to."

"That's right. So, you got to start becoming more serious, Naruto. Try to keep those little outbursts of yours inside, instead of at the Hokage's office, you hear me?" Iruka's stern face however dropped in favor of a large happy smile. Truthfully, the brown-haired man couldn't be any prouder today. Two of his students had become a chūnin in as short as a year, and on their first tries at the Chūnin Exams. Perhaps in times of war, that was not that spectacular, but nowadays, that was admirable indeed.

Iruka knew Naruto was the type of person who needed someone to give him that sort of congratulation, that sort of acknowledgement, and Iruka didn't shy away from it at all, with the pat on the shoulder he gave him. He then ruffled Naruto's hair. "You did good today, Naruto. I'm proud of you. Keep it up."

"T-Thank, Iruka-sensei." Naruto smiled gently, his eyes shining, and he seemed to shiver. Iruka rubbed Naruto's back softly.

"Yeah, boy!" Teuchi said, bringing out a large bowl of ramen for him, and a moderate-sized one for Iruka. "We're proud of you too. As a show of it, we prepared a hell of dish for you. Sorry for the wait, but we hope you enjoy it."

Ayame suddenly appeared the kitchen too to the side of Naruto, and gave Naruto a kiss on the cheek, and ruffled his hair as well. She placed Naruto's utensils down to his side, and a glass of water in front of him. "You're going to go far, Naruto-kun! Every time you get a promotion like this, best believe a big bowl like this will be waiting for you."

"And who knows what will it be when you make Hokage, my boy!" Teuchi laughed lively. "So, you best- aww, it's okay, Naruto. No need to hold back now! Cry if you want!"

"S-Shuddup, Teuchi-jiji!" Naruto stuttered, rubbing his eyes furiously, feeling Ayame give him a hug from the back and Iruka chuckling softly, while making his hair completely a mess. He promised himself there would be no more tears for a good while, but here he was, almost bawling like a baby.

But he was happy, and that was what it was all about.

Something finally came good out this stupid ass week.

* * *

_**In Konohagakure, With Naruto Uzumaki – Two Days Later**_

Naruto sat at his couch, relaxing after having a breakfast made at home for him. He reflected on what had happened two days ago, a smile on his face.

Ah, to be a chūnin. Honestly, it didn't feel all that different to Naruto, but it hadn't been very long since his promotion. There were certain benefits to his promotion, he was sure. He had access to more missions of a higher-tier and, if he tried to go there more often, more access to higher level techniques to learn in the library. It also didn't hurt that now he had some bragging rights. At least that was nice.

He was the first one of his peers – besides Shikamaru – to become a chūnin now. Who could say he was one of the worse genin of last year's graduating class now? Of course, he didn't think anyone could argue that anyway with how far he came in the exams. He ended up in the finals after all.

Speaking of his peers, he saw a few recently. Shikamaru yesterday, along with his team, were rare visitors of Ichiraku. Naruto didn't believe Shikamaru or Chōji had any sort of problem coming to the fast food joint at all, but Naruto figured Ino would be wary of such places because of her "dieting." How she wanted to diet especially when she was a genin was beyond him, but in the end, he decided he didn't care all too much about it anyway since she wasn't _his _teammate.

But yeah, they congratulated him – well, Ino kind of raged, and was disbelieving at his promotion, but Naruto believed it was more out of being annoyed that Sasuke didn't get a promotion before him, or Shikamaru for that matter. "The two genin who did horrendously in our graduating year ended up becoming chūnin before the Rookie Of The Year? How does that work out?"

Of course, Naruto wisely didn't add that Sasuke didn't get promoted because him and Kakashi were so late to the Chūnin Exams stadium that Sasuke got disqualified because of it. Doing so may have ended him getting screamed at by the self-confessed Sasuke fangirl. Naruto was trying to have a good afternoon that day, not get in some argument with a girl who was just looking to start one with her ranting. So, he just did what Shikamaru and Chōji had come to learn to do when dealing with Ino Yamanaka. "Uh-huh, yeah…"

Nod your head, agree out loud, and shut up after that.

After them, he ended up running into Team Kurenai without the named person in tow with them. Kiba looked annoyed that Naruto was now a chūnin, but that turned out to be just a façade, and he congratulated Naruto with a hard slap to his chest, and a fist bump. Shino gave his congrats too, but it was more long-winded, and talky compared to Kiba's. Nevertheless, Naruto appreciated it.

Hinata's congratulations was… interesting. Well, it was more like a sputtering, stuttering mess of a congrats with Hinata looking like her face was catching on fire, and Kiba looking like he was going to keel over in laughter.

Naruto was super curious on why the hell Hinata got like that when she saw Naruto. She was already a shy and introverted girl from what Naruto figured but she became worse when she saw him. Maybe she didn't like him or something, or maybe she was fearful of him? He didn't know… though it didn't seem that was the problem since she didn't act like it. He didn't know – he didn't see Hinata all that much anyway, so he didn't try to worry about it too much.

Still, she was… quite strange.

Well, he still liked her.

Anyway, yeah, he was now in his third day of being a chūnin, and in all honesty, nothing had changed a bit. Though he supposed what could he expect? Huge missions from the Hokage himself already? Not going to happen. He was a rookie chūnin, and he would have to get his feet wet before he could dream of getting such missions. His fantasies of saving princesses from snowy lands, or priestesses with the power to seal away demons, or going back in time to protect future queens of large, forgotten cities would have to be put on hold.

Hey, a man could dream, right?

A knock on the door took him out of his thoughts. He got off from his couch, and opened his door. He was greeted with the cheery voice of his teacher. Or, well, his former teacher, really. Now that he was chūnin – as Iruka had explained last night – he was no longer truly bound to Team Kakashi anymore. "Good morning."

"Morning, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto uttered in an even tone.

"Hello, Naruto. Congrats on your promotion. I heard from the grapevine about it. Sorry I couldn't see you before to give you the congratulations though." Kakashi said cordially, despite Naruto's calmer tone.

"Thanks. What's up?"

"Well, I'm sure you heard about it, but I'm here to come collect you. Me and Sakura will be going to the inauguration of the next Hokage."

"Oh, yeah. They do that when they want to instate a new Hokage, huh? Alright. I washed up before, so just let me throw on my vest and shirt."

"Right."

…

The walk to Sakura's home was simple and quiet. Neither of the men talked, and that was just fine with Naruto. They had really nothing to talk about. Kakashi knocked on the door, and announced himself. Sakura was the one who came to answer the door.

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei, and Naruto! Oh, that's right. Congratulations for becoming a chūnin, Naruto!"

"Thanks, Sakura-chan." Naruto smiled brightly at his female friend.

"Of course, don't let that give you a big head. After all, you got a lot to catch up if you want to match Sasuke-kun. Besides that, you got to start taking responsibility now for your actions." She placed her hands on her hips, looking stern.

Naruto tried not to roll his eyes, "Uh-huh, yeah…"

"Alright, Sakura. Enough of harassing your teammate. You need to get ready for today."

"Oh yeah, the inauguration of the Hokage is today, is it? I looked at the flyer my mother got a few days. She won't be able to make it out – looking after Dad who got sick just recently, but I'll go with you guys."

"Good."

"W-Will Sasuke-kun be able to join us?" Sakura asked, looking hopeful.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, he isn't clear yet."

Sakura deflated. "Aw, I see. Well, I guess that's okay. I should go visit him. You too, Naruto." She looked again at her teammate – or former teammate, to be exact. "You haven't visited him yet, have you?"

"Um," Naruto started, looking somewhat sheepish. Oh, yeah. He didn't actually visit Sasuke at all, since the time he was put in the hospital, did he? "I… I guess I haven't."

"Well, you're going to come with me, after the inauguration, so prepare yourself."

"We'll all go, Sakura." Kakashi stated, smiling at his student. "I think Sasuke will appreciate us all being there."

Naruto almost snorted. Sasuke appreciating their presence? That sounded a little out of character for the guy. Then again, Sasuke could act like a tsundere sometimes. Nevertheless, Naruto nodded at Kakashi. "Alrighty then."

Sakura turned her body to go back inside her house. "Wait for me. I'll get my stuff and we can go."

The men nodded, and watched the door close in front of their faces.

* * *

_**In Konohagakure, The Inauguration of Jiraiya**_

Jiraiya stared back at a cheering crowd. Adorned in the white and red garb of the Hokage, with the traditional hat of the Hokage on his head, Jiraiya stared at the many people who had come to see this event happen. Villagers, ninjas, children and adults alike, they all stood in the courtyard of the Konoha Ninja Academy. They all had cheered, they had all came to see who would be elected as Hokage. They came for a fresh start, new beginnings, a new Hokage to bring hope back to the village.

They wanted a good show from the man who was their new leader.

And Jiraiya was great at many things, including being a great entertainer. He was going to definitely spice the hell out of this inauguration and make sure he left an impression upon all of them!

Genma Shiranui – who was the elite bodyguard of the last Hokage, and the Hokage before that – came to Jiraiya and offered him a microphone to amplify his voice, but Jiraiya slapped it out his hand. Genma was immediately confused. "My lord?"

"I do not need a microphone, Genma. My voice is already fucking _powerful_!" Jiraiya announced, energetically stepping to the edge of the roof of the Ninja Academy, and placing one wooden geta on the railing. In a show of great control over his chakra, one stomp on the railing lead to two giant pillars of flames launching into the skies nearby his person. The pillars remained, as did his foot. "My fellow villagers! My fellow shinobi! My fellas, and of course I can't forget my ladies, it is I! Who am I, you ask?"

Then Jiraiya weaved a set of hand seals, and the pillars of fire transformed from simple flames to dragons created out of said fire. "I AM THE GREAT ONE, THE MOUNTAIN AND THE MOUNTAIN MOVER! I AM THE IMMOVABLE OBJECT AND THE IRRESISTABLE FORCE ITSELF! I AM THE BACK TWISTER, LINGERIE RIPPER, THE AUTOMATIC LEG SPREADER, GO GETTER, KEEPING IT NINJA WITH YA, THE GODS' SON HIMSELF! I AM THE TOAD SAGE, JIRAIYA, AND I AM THE GODAIME HOKAGE!"

Jiraiya barely heard the sound of his two advisors slap themselves in the face before he got an immediately response from the crowd. They popped. They shouted. They cheered. They yelled. They were alive, and the downed, and injured spirit that once had the village in a headlock disappeared. The dragons who rose from the flames then circled above the Hokage and his peers on the rooftop. They hissed, and roared as loudly as the crowd was.

Jiraiya smirked, and leaned on the leg on the railing of the rooftop. "My people! We have been through a hell of a time last week! The village was invaded and nearly destroyed by both Suna and Otogakure…" That led to a bunch of yells and jeers from the crowd, but Jiraiya waited until they calmed down a bit to continue. "But look at us now, standing when they thought they could destroy us! They thought they could beat us, _break_ us, but how could they break the Will of Fire?!"

The crowd immediately were on their feet, shouting and cheering proudly again. The dragons roared with them. Jiraiya continued, looking pleased. "Yes, that energy, that power that I feel from you all is exactly what we need to be. We need to be powerful, to be strong, to show the world that you may be able to push us down, and defeat us, but our will burns as strong and brightly as fire itself! We will continue to get back up, continue to fight when it looks like we cannot, and we will continue to be the strongest hidden village of this entire continent!"

The dragons roared again, as did the people, who many started to cheer his name. "Jiraiya, Jiraiya! Jiraiya, Jiraiya!"

It was time to take it home. "From this day until my last, I, Jiraiya will continue to serve this village as your Hokage! I, Jiraiya, will continue to protect this village as your Hokage! I, JIRAIYA, WILL BE THE HOKAGE YOU NEED! THE WILL OF FIRE STILL BURNS!"

Everyone cheered, and the dragons roared one last time, until Jiraiya took his foot off the railing. Then, the dragons exploded in the sky into a shower of fire that quickly disappeared into the air. Jiraiya walked away from the people, and returned into the Ninja Academy. His bodyguards – a now quiet and mystified Genma Shiranui, a gawking Iwashi Tatami, and a smirking Raidō Namiashi – quickly walked behind him. The two elder advisers were at Jiraiya's side.

"Liked the inauguration, people?" Jiraiya asked almost arrogantly.

"Hmph, you could have acted a little professionally." Koharu grumbled.

"I thought it was not too shabby, my lord." Homura stated, looking more amused that his female counterpart did.

"Yes, _of course_ you enjoyed it, Homura," Koharu glared at her former teammate. "After all, you were smirking throughout the whole speech."

"Ah, semantics. Lighten up a bit, my old friend."

* * *

_**End.**_

**A/N: **Ahh, Hokage Jiraiya. Finally (the village is screwed). Haha.

A bunch of talking and no action to speak of. I'm sorry. I needed to set the next part in motion, and this was the way for me to do so. And yes, next chapter definitely will be entering back into the adventure genre of this story again. However, I enjoyed making this chapter.

Yeah, this chapter is pretty long. I was going to break it up into two separate chapters, but I wanted to get all the sort of talking out of the way, so we can move into some action in the next chapter, as I set up the next sort of arc in mind. I got some ideas in my head for the next chapter, which will be coming soon.

Thank you all for reading, those of you who reviewed, and whatnot. The next chapter shall come soon. Trying to have it out by the end of January or the beginning of February. No promises though. I'll get back to it soon.


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